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The England midfielder says she wants to continue helping to support the next generation.
Temps stay mild through Christmas with highs near 40°. We're tracking a storm capable of bringing ice to Metro Detroit Friday morning.
For many people the holidays are a time to unwind with friends and family, but overdoing it can come with potential health risk that's referred to as "holiday heart syndrome."
Tennerra Winery in Sterling Heights becomes a local favorite for wine lovers, offering a diverse selection and homemade food.
Stocks are hovering near their records on a holiday-shortened trading day. The S&P 500 was flat in early trading Wednesday. The index closed at its latest all-time high a day earlier. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 51 points,...
Former freshman Auburn receiver has proven playmaking ability could consider visit to Arkansas
Local sheriff’s office deputies and police officers have been working together on a long-term investigation into a local drug distribution network they say...
Hunter harvest rates in southwestern Montana were mixed during the general deer and elk hunting season, according to the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP).
The Patriots are playoff-bound. Steve Burton, Ernie Adams, and Christian Fauria are back to discuss the team's win over the Ravens and how the team can improve their road record to 8-0 in their upcoming matchup against the Jets.
While BlackBerry's management has stabilized the ship through cost-cutting, investors are still waiting for a visionary spark. See why I rate BB stock a Buy.
The single-family house located at 1719 Moran Drive in Shorewood was sold on Dec. 9, for $510,000, or $177 per square foot.
Three Ottawa University men’s soccer players have been named to the NAIA All-American teams.
Discover how VOOV delivers diversified S&P 500 value stock exposure, yield and returns.
IN THE PAST TWENTY-FOUR HOURS MARION COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPUTIES RESPONDED TO 30 CALLS FOR SERVICE INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO: NINE EXTRA PATROLS, EIGHT PAPER SERVICE ATTEMPTS, TWO ASSIST OTHER AGENCIES, TWO RESCUES, ONE DOMESTIC, ONE MOTORIST
The City of Winnipeg has lifted the residential parking ban.
Only one person is to blame in the DK Metcalf imbroglio.
Meet Space Glide: A No-Ice, No-Blades Skating Alternative at the New York Hall of Science At a Glance Space Glide is a limited-time, indoor skating experience at the New York Hall of Science Kids glide in booties on a smooth surface—no ice, skates, or blades needed It’s indoors, making it a cold-weather, crowd-avoiding winter... Read More
High prices for a range of goods, including beef, coffee and electricity, have upset consumers and frustrated Trump.
It wasn’t supposed to end this way. For years, the Kansas City Chiefs have owned the AFC West. Arrowhead Stadium in December (and January) has been a fortress, a place where playoff runs are forged and division titles are celebrated.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters that he would be willing to withdraw troops from the country’s eastern industrial heartland.
UFC heavyweight star Derrick Lewis claims that the promotion tried to book a fight between him and former GLORY Kickboxing Champion Rico Verhoeven at UFC 324.
Who has the advantage and where in the Jaguars vs. Colts Week 17 NFL matchup?
New England Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez has secured his very first Pro Bowl selection, which is great news for him but bad news for the Patriots' wallet.
Browns sign OL Kendrick Green Cleveland BrownsBrowns sign former All-American, top-100 NFL Draft pick OL Dawgs By NatureBrowns sign OL Kendrick Green off of Bills’ practice squad NBC SportsCleveland Browns sign veteran offensive lineman on Christmas Eve Sports IllustratedBrowns add former highly-touted Steelers center before Week 17 clash PennLive.com
From a total Washington novice, Silicon Valley investor David Sacks has against expectations emerged as one of the most successful members of the second Trump administration. He is officially chair of President Donald Trump’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. However, in the White House he is referred to as the AI and crypto [...]The post David Sacks: Trump’s AI power broker appeared first on Digital Journal.
After sampling the Mercedes GT3 himself, Max Verstappen's team is pivoting to the German manufacturer next year
OnePlus started rolling out OxygenOS 16.0.2.400 for the OnePlus Open in India. The update hits a small group of users first, with a wider release coming in a few days. What’s New You can now open storage cleanup tools directly from Smart Sidebar instead of digging through settings. The update lets you resize app icons [...]The post OnePlus Open Update: OxygenOS 16.0.2.400 Brings Smart Sidebar Tools and Photos App Improvements appeared first on Gizmochina.
According to Tipsbladet, Oscar Fraulo is set to leave Borussia Mönchengladbach behind and join Derby County.The two clubs have reportedly already agreed on an undisclosed transfer fee for the 22-year...
TUCSON, Ariz., Dec. 24, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Picard Medical, Inc. (NYSE:PMI) ("Picard" or the "Company"), parent company of SynCardia Systems LLC, maker of the world's first total artificial heart approved by both the U.S. FDA and Health Canada, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement for a private placement financing of up to $50.0 million aggregate principal amount of senior secured notes due 2028 together with warrants to purchase common stock of the Company. WestPark Capital Inc. served as Sole Placement Agent.The Company expects to issue an initial $15.0 million principal amount of notes at closing with the option to fund up to an additional $35.0 million principal amount in one or more tranches subject to certain conditions. The notes will be senior secured obligations of the Company.The Company intends to use the net proceeds for working capital and general corporate purposes.The securities have not been registered under the Securities Act ...Full story available on Benzinga.com
GOOD MORNING...HERE IS YOUR MORNING MARKET NEWS OVERNIGHT GRAIN TRADE Look for quieter trading action in the grain futures today, as many traders will be hitting the exit doors early to get a jump on the Christmas holiday. This is your final issue of our MarketsFarm AM Market Report for 2025. We will be taking [...] Read more
The Bruins' James Hagens, Islanders' Victor Eklund and Sabres' Radim Mrtka will be just some of the NHL's Eastern Conference prospects to watch at the world juniors.
Shares of Brinker International, Inc. (NYSE:EAT – Get Free Report) have received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eighteen brokerages that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and nine have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target [...]
Yousif Capital Management LLC decreased its holdings in Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE:RCL – Free Report) by 7.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 30,330 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,563 shares during the quarter. Yousif Capital Management [...]
Malibu Boats, Inc. (NASDAQ:MBUU – Get Free Report) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the ten ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have assigned a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. [...]
Yousif Capital Management LLC trimmed its position in shares of Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR – Free Report) by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 95,490 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 5,074 shares during the period. Yousif [...]
Shares of PACS Group, Inc. (NYSE:PACS – Get Free Report) have been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the seven analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy [...]
Wealthspring Capital LLC cut its holdings in shares of Cayson Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:CAPN – Free Report) by 65.5% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 59,550 shares of the company’s stock after selling 113,250 shares during the period. Wealthspring Capital LLC’s holdings in Cayson Acquisition were worth $623,000 as of its most [...]
Auburn linebacker Robert Woodyard Jr. plans on entering the transfer portal
TOWAMENCIN – North Penn boys basketball coach Cordell Lord has confidence that the Knights can get offensive production from most of their roster.
Mexico's president says air traffic controllers lost communication for 10 minutes with a small Mexican Navy plane on a medical mission before it crashed off the Texas coast. The crash killed at least five people. Authorities initially believed it had...
Taylor Swift opened her heart and purse strings, inking seven-digit checks to various charities fighting hunger, cardiovasculardisease and the struggles of fellow artists, the non-profit groups said Tuesday.The “’tis the damn season” singer gave $1 million to Feeding America, another $1 million to the American Heart Association and a “generous donation” to the recording academy’s MusiCares, according to separate statements by those charities on Tuesday.“We remain ‘Fearless’ in our relentless commitment to prevent heart disease” and help Americans long live, the century-old AHA said in a statement.Swift’s donation to the American Heart Association clearly had a personal connection, as her father, Scott Swift, had quintuple bypass surgery back in June.“Taylor’s contribution enables the advancement of ongoing scientific research, stronger prevention and treatment efforts and expanded access to life-saving care for every community,” the group said. Feeding America CEO Claire Babineaux-Fontenot said her group is “incredibly grateful”for Swift’s backing.“This holiday season, her continued support is a powerful reminder of what’s possible when we unite to end hunger,” she said in a statement.And on Wednesday, the Academy of Country Music said it was “enchanted to be a recipient of Taylor Swift’s incredible generosity.” The two-time ACM entertainer of the year’s donation will benefit its ACM Lifting Lives campaign, which benefits musicians dancing through the lightning strikes of economic hardships brought by on health struggles, the academy said.Country music can be an empowering force and “Taylor embodies that all too well,” according to the ACM.Music & MusiciansAug 2, 2023Taylor Swift gives $100,000 bonuses, handwritten letters to her Eras Tour truck driversTaylor SwiftOct 18Taylor Swift makes $100,000 donation to 2-year-old cancer patientSwift’s fans have also been in the giving mood this holiday season, donating to Taylor-adjacent efforts.During her recent “The End of an Era” docuseries, fan favorite dancer Kameron Saunders revealed that when he was first invited to audition for Swift’s “Eras Tour,” he didn’t have money to travel.He asked his brother, NFL defensive tackle Khalen Saunders, for help to buy the plane ticket and he obliged, according to Kam.Khalen Saunders joked recently that Swift’s fans thanked him for supporting his brother, but “ain’t nobody asked me what I want for Christmas.” Swift’s fans responded by inundating the player’s charity Original Element, which promotes sports for all groups, such as LGBTQ+ youth, with $13 (Taylor’s lucky number) donations.“Thank yall so much,” Khalen Saunders wrote. “I truly am so grateful to have support like this. I can assure you that every single one of these dollars will be poured right back into the community!” This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.
The Europeans were characterized by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio as “radical” activists and “weaponized” nongovernmental organizations.
Canada’s largest brewer Labatt says Canadians have begun to opt for 'easy-drinking styles' in the last five years
Central computer systems at French national postal service La Poste were knocked offline Monday in DDoS attack.The post Pro-Russian Hackers Claim Cyberattack on French Postal Service appeared first on SecurityWeek.
Automakers stand to benefit as the EU proposes rolling back its 2035 ICE ban, allowing plug-in hybrids and easing CO2 targets amid softer EV demand.
Do you know your mathematical equations from your scientific constants? If you know your numbers then try our daily quiz.
Samsung has taken the next step before it makes iPhone image sensors in the U.S., with new hiring and equipment installation underway at its Taylor, Texas, factory.Image credit: SamsungSamsung is gearing up to install production equipment at its Taylor, Texas, factory. The manufacturer is gearing up to produce the CMOS image sensors (CIS) used in Apple's iPhone.According to The Elec, the company listed job postings for technical and electrical project managers in mid-December. New hires will help install necessary hookups, such as gas and water. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
CBS News aired the Kennedy Center Honors on Tuesday using a sharply edited Donald Trump monologue and dodging his controversial “Trump Kennedy Center...
'Avatar: Fire and Ash' and 'Zootopia 2' break international box office records.Disney's 2025 Q4 relied on both films being massive international hits, especially in China.Box office success boosts Disney's prospects for a crucial 2026, distancing it from streaming-focused, embattled rivals. ...
From a total Washington novice, Silicon Valley investor David Sacks has against expectations emerged as one of the most successful members of the second Trump administration.
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 24, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Schall Law Firm, a national litigation firm, announces that it is investigating claims on behalf of policyholders of Aetna Medicare Advantage plans through CVS Health Corporation (“CVS”) for breach of contract...
The Powerball jackpot now stands at an estimated $1.7 billion and is one of the largest lottery prizes in U.S. history. The lottery group will be drawing the 4th-largest jackpot ever on Christmas Eve. The record U.S. jackpot is $2.04...
Andrew Freer of Go Fourth Media is releasing a series of documentary shorts on YouTube chronicling ICE and Border Patrol activity and the stories of local activists standing up for their neighbors.
How Santa got his Job. by Stephen KrenskyNews StaffWed, 12/24/2025 - 09:32 Video Embed
Social media users praised the scene in the viral clip, with one saying "it's like shopping and sightseeing" at same time.
Image courtesy of NetEaseMany Marvel fans, myself included, were excited when NetEase announced Marvel Mystic Mayhem. This free-to-play tactical RPG released in June 2025, bringing fans another way to engage with Marvel characters on the go. Despite some initial early interest, however, the game never really took off the way prior NetEase and Marvel Games collab Marvel Rivals [...]The post NetEase Is Ending Service For Its Newest Marvel Game After Less than a Year appeared first on ComicBook.com.
Will Arnett’s latest punch line? He can do drama. The Washington PostWill Arnett exposes the complexities of marriage and comedy in 'Is This Thing On?' NPRWill Arnett Joins The Rolling Stone Interview: 'I Shed a Lot of Stuff I'd Done for Years' YahooWill Arnett: ‘I Shed a Lot of Stuff I’d Done for Years’ Rolling StoneWill Arnett Tells Graham Norton How John Bishop Inspired his New Movie Beyond The Joke
Many Fortnite players have lost their cosmetics after getting a $1 refund
With Thanksgiving around the corner, it’s just about acceptable to start saying that it’s the most wonderful time of the year. When it comes to getting into the holiday spirit, Netflix is one of the best platforms for hosting both original holiday movie content as well as fan favorites, both old and new. This November, [...]
The second batch of episodes from the final season comes out this week. Here's what to know.
Here are some suggestions on how to unplug from the online world as you sit down for a festive meal, exchange gifts or take time out for some self-reflection.
AI writing tools are supercharging scientific productivity, with researchers posting up to 50% more papers after adopting them. The biggest beneficiaries are scientists who don’t speak English as a first language, potentially shifting global centers of research power. But there’s a downside: many AI-polished papers fail to deliver real scientific value. This growing gap between slick writing and meaningful results is complicating peer review, funding decisions, and research oversight.
Astronomy in 2025: This Year’s Most Captivating Discoveries in Space and the Cosmos The DebriefHow 2025 became the year of comet: The rise of interstellar 3I/ATLAS, an icy Lemmon and a cosmic SWAN SpaceBest space photos of 2025 Live ScienceThe best space pictures of 2025, from supernovae to moon landings New ScientistThe Best Space Photos of 2025 Reveal the Most Jaw-Dropping Views of the Cosmos Scientific American
Christmas means different things to different people. For me, it's an opportunity to eat celebratory foods that aren't available all year round.
During mating season, when male white-tailed deer want to get noticed by the opposite sex and warn off rivals, they rub their antlers against trees and scrape the forest floor. Then they pee on these patches. But there is more to these physical and scent markers than meets the eye—or nose. According to a new study published in the journal Ecology and Evolution, they also glow so that other deer can see them when it's dark.
Ever wondered why your mango tree drops fruit before it's ripe? Each season, mango growers across Australia watch helplessly as millions of mangoes fall to the ground too early.
Holiday celebrations involving gift giving can be roller coasters. The excitement of tearing into gifts is often mixed with intense anticipation—and sometimes, disappointment.
What's the value of one animal? When a wild animal is found badly injured, the most humane option is often euthanasia to prevent further suffering. That's what usually happens, and often for good reason. Even when the resources to rescue one animal are available, a rehabilitated animal brought back into the wild might be rejected by its group, or struggle to find food or escape predators. If it does survive, it may fail to reproduce, and leave no lasting mark on the population.
The USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, participated in scientific and military operations around the world.
Doctors say just 1 in 30,000 pregnancies occur in the abdomen instead of the uterus
Welcome to the Lemon-Shaped Planet Where Rain Turns to Diamonds Good News NetworkLemon-Shaped World Is the Most Stretched-Out Planet Ever Seen The New York TimesNASA’s Webb Observes Exoplanet Whose Composition Defies Explanation NASA Science (.gov)This Lemon-Shaped Planet Has an Atmosphere Unlike Anything Astronomers Have Ever Seen Smithsonian MagazineScientists Discover ‘Black Widow’ Exoplanet That Defies Explanation 404 Media
Usually, I start off these annual highlights posts by saying that it was the best year ever for robotics. But this year, I’m not so sure. At the end of 2024, it really seemed like AI and humanoid robots were poised to make a transformative amount of progress towards some sort of practicality. While it’s certainly true that progress has been made, it’s hard to rationalize what’s actually happened in 2025 with the amount of money and hype that has suffused robotics over the course of the year. And for better or worse, humanoids are overshadowing everything else, raising questions about what will happen if the companies building them ultimately do not succeed.We’ll be going into 2026 with both optimism and skepticism, and we’ll keep doing what we always do: talking to the experts, asking as many hard questions as we can, and making sure to share all the cool robots, even (or especially) the ones that you won’t see anywhere else.So thanks for reading, and to all you awesome robotics folks out there, thanks for sharing your work with us! IEEE Spectrum has a bunch of exciting new stuff planned for 2026, and as we close out 2025, here’s a quick look back at some of our best robotics stories of the year.1. Reality Is Ruining the Humanoid Robot Hype Eddie Guy Humanoid robots are hard, and they’re hard in lots of different ways. For some of those ways, we at least understand the problems and what the solutions will likely involve. But there are other problems that have no clear solutions, and most humanoid companies, especially the well-funded ones, seem quite happy to wave those problems away while continuing to raise extraordinary amounts of money. We’re going to keep calling this out whenever we see it, and expect even more skepticism in 2026.2. Exploit Allows for Takeover of Fleets of Unitree Robots CFOTO/Future Publishing/Getty Images Security is one of those pesky little things that is super important in robotics but that early-stage robotics companies typically treat as an afterthought because it doesn’t drive investment. Chinese manufacturer Unitree is really the one company with humanoids robots that are available enough and affordable enough for clever people to perform a security audit on them. And to the surprise of no one, Unitree’s robots had serious vulnerabilities, which as of yet have not all been fixed.3.Amazon’s Vulcan Robots Now Stow Items Faster Than Humans Amazon The thing I appreciate about the folks at Amazon Robotics is how relentless they are in finding creative solutions for problems at scale. Amazon simply doesn’t have time to mess around, and they’re designing robots to do what robots do best: specific repetitive tasks in structured environments. In the current climate of robotics hype, it’s refreshing, honestly.4. Large Behavior Models Are Helping Atlas Get to Work Boston Dynamics Did I mention that humanoids robots are hard? Whether or not anyone can deliver on the promises being made about them (and personally, I’m leaning more and more strongly towards not), progress is being made towards humanoids that are much more capable and versatile than they ever have been. The collaboration between Toyota Research and Boston Dynamics on large behavior models is just one example of how far we’ve come, and how far we still have to go.5. iRobot’s Cofounder Weighs In on Company’s Bankruptcy Lindsey Nicholson/Universal Images Group/Getty Images My least favorite story to write happened right at the end of the year—iRobot filed for bankruptcy. This was not a total surprise; regulators shutting down an acquisition by Amazon in 2024 essentially gutted the company, and it’s been limping along towards the inevitable since then. Right after the news was announced, we spoke with iRobot co-founder and ex-CEO Colin Angle, who had plenty to share about where things went wrong, and what we can learn from it.6. How Dairy Robots Are Changing Work for Cows (and Farmers) Evan Ackerman My favorite story of 2025 was as much about cows as it was about robots. I was astonished to learn just how many fully autonomous robots are hard at work on dairy farms around the world, and utterly delighted to also learn that these robots are actively improving the lives of both dairy farmers and the dairy cows themselves. Dairy farming is endless hard work, but thanks to these robots, small family farms are able to keep themselves sustainable (and sane). Everybody wins, thanks to the robots.
With the most wonderful -- and for some, the most stressful -- time of year underway, a University of Iowa researcher is working to discover pathways in the brain to help decrease the risks that come with chronic stress and promote resilience. According to a 2023 poll conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of [...]
Learn why killer whales sometimes wear dead salmon on their heads, and what that might mean.
Air traffic controllers lost communication for about 10 minutes with a small Mexican navy plane carrying a young medical patient and seven others before it crashed off the Texas coast in thick fog, killing at least six people, Mexico's government said Tuesday. The plane was working with a nonprofit group...
To the untrained eye, it did not look like a particularly complicated mission. A large black quadcopter drone, more than two meters spanning the propeller tips, sat parked on the grass. Nestled between the legs of its landing gear was a red balloon filled with water. Not far away, on a concrete pad, a stack of wood pallets was ablaze, the flames whipping around in a heavy wind. A student at the University of Maryland (UMD) would fly the Alta X drone all of about 25 meters to the fire. There it would drop the water balloon to extinguish the flames. In the XPrize contest, drones must distinguish between dangerous fires—like this one—and legitimate campfires. Jayme ThorntonBut, of course, it was complicated. The drone needed to hover at about 13.5 meters overhead, and the balloon was configured to detonate at a specific point in midair to ensure optimal water dispersal, as calculated by UMD’s Department of Fire Protection Engineering. On a signal, Andrés Felipe Rivas Bolivar, a doctoral student in aerospace engineering, launched the Alta X toward the fire. As a second, smaller drone outfitted with a thermal camera surveyed the scene from above, Rivas maneuvered the balloon-laden drone to the proper position. After about a half minute, he released the water bomb...and the balloon plummeted to the ground just wide of the platform, bursting with a thwaaaap.On this warm but blustery day in mid-October, a team of about 20 UMD students and professors were gathered at a fire and rescue training center in La Plata, Md., to demonstrate the building blocks of what could be the future of wildfire fighting. They called their team Crossfire. Their guests were a handful of officials from the XPrize Foundation, which has organized a pair of competitions to vastly speed up wildfire detection and suppression. Twelve other teams are competing with Crossfire in the semifinals for the autonomous wildfire-suppression track of the competition. In the final round, to be held in June 2026, five of those teams will have to find a fire within 1,000 square kilometers of what XPrize calls “environmentally challenging” terrain and then navigate to and extinguish it, all within 10 minutes. The winner collects a US $3.5 million purse—and, hopefully, the world’s wildfire-fighting armies get a powerful new weapon for their arsenals.The Wildfire ProblemWildfires are growing more severe and affecting more people worldwide. The November 2018 Camp Fire that burned down 620 square kilometers of Northern California, including most of the town of Paradise, was the most deadly and destructive in the state’s recorded history, and it sent Pacific Gas and Electric, the giant utility responsible for starting the fire, into bankruptcy. XPrize had long been based in the Los Angeles area, so that catastrophe was undoubtedly on the minds of its staffers when they formulated the competition in 2019. “This was just something that was really personal and close to a lot of the individuals at the organization,” says Andrea Santy, program director for the wildfire competition. XPrize eventually organized a separate track of the competition to award $3.5 million for detecting small fires with satellites. Andrea Santy, one of the program managers from XPrize in charge of the wildfire competition, looks on during Crossfire’s trials.Jayme ThorntonSanty says XPrize’s competition designers met with more than 100 experts in the field, including fire scientists, agency officials, and technologists—“all the experts that you would want at the table were at the table.” Where their views aligned, Santy says, XPrize researchers detected the “core problems.” One of the most important was response time. In the best case, an hour can often pass between when a fire is first detected and when it’s extinguished. XPrize aims to shrink that drastically. An additional $1 million will go to the teams that (per the rules) “successfully demonstrate accurate, precise, and rapid detection.”Arnaud Trouvé, chair of the UMD’s Fire Protection Engineering department, thinks even the 10-minute limit may not be good enough. “On a red flag day with high-wind conditions, a fire that starts is going to be taking a big size within a matter of tens of seconds,” he said as we waited for the Alta X to try again. “So even the 10 minutes you have to go do something will be too slow.” Whatever comes from the XPrize, he says, will be adopted, but more likely in developed areas, where fires spread more slowly and could be extinguished early on, when firefighters are often busy evacuating residents.In any event, the time limit pointed most teams—and all the teams to make the semifinals—toward drones. Firefighters have worked, or tried to work, given bureaucratic and other hurdles, with drones for years, but mainly for reconnaissance, says Bob Roper, a senior wildfire advisor for the Western Fire Chiefs Association. Many of the hurdles around using drones have been cleared, but no drone exists yet that can carry enough suppressant to be useful on its own, says Roper. (The smallest helicopter bucket carries 270 liters.) Roper says government-funded fire agencies seldom “have available unrestricted dollars to be able to develop something that’s new.” By sprinkling startups and universities with research funding, the XPrize is poised to make, he says, “a quantum leap difference.”Team Crossfire Word of the XPrize wildfire competition reached Trouvé’s desk soon after it launched in April 2023. He joined forces with colleagues in aerospace and mechanical engineering and with xFoundry, a new organization that uses competitions to spur entrepreneurship. (xFoundry’s founder, Amir Ansari, happened to be one of the sponsors of the first XPrize in 1994; his sister-in-law Anousheh is the CEO of the XPrize Foundation.) It didn’t take long to sketch out most of what they brought to La Plata. The University of Maryland’s Yaseen Taha [right] pilots a spotter drone while Brian Tran looks on. Jayme ThorntonThe day began with tests of the detection drone. Its dock opened like flower petals unfolding and the drone, a much smaller quadcopter than the Alta X, shot up into the air. Using a handheld controller, undergraduate Yaseen Taha flew it to a point 35 meters above the burning pallets. Like all the technology Crossfire has deployed, the scout was an off-the-shelf model, made by the Chinese manufacturer DJI. It came with a lot of important features already programmed in, including obstacle avoidance and lidar, and cost just $25,000, according to xFoundry head of products and ventures Phillip Alvarez. “We get a really nice, well-polished system for a pretty low price here, and then we can spend the rest of development on solving the hard stuff,” he said. In total, Crossfire has spent around $300,000, most of it raised from UMD donors, he added. xFoundry’s Philip Alvarez stands behind the Crossfire team’s drone that’s used for detecting wildfires. Jayme ThorntonThe hard stuff, some of it anyway, was visible on a large display monitor showing the feeds from the drone’s two cameras. On the right was the infrared feed; on it, a red square labeled “fire” bracketed the burning pallets. A smaller red fire square appeared up and to the right of this; this was a pile of glowing embers in a bin not far away. These were meant to represent a campfire—the contest rules required systems to distinguish between potentially destructive conflagrations and “decoy fires” that don’t pose a threat. Crossfire’s system made those distinctions based on the drone’s color video feed. That feed runs through an open-source deep learning model known as YOLO (“You Only Look Once”), which recognizes images. One of Crossfire’s drones scans the terrain and distinguishes between a burning pile of pallets and a small fire in a bin. Robb Mandelbaum To train it, UMD students fed 40,000 photographs of fires to the model—manually identifying the blazes in about 1,200 of these. The result was that when the program processed the color feed from the drone, it concluded that pallets were a fire, marked on the screen in a blue box, and ignored the bin. Now both camera feeds indicated a blaze in the same place, and the monitor threw up a warning in red: “FIRE DETECTED.” As turkey vultures looked on from high above, the drone identified the fire again from a higher altitude, then with the cameras pointed at a different angle, it finally flew a preprogrammed back-and-forth route through the air that looks like a lawnmower’s path. An electric Ford F150 truck serves as charger and home base for Crossfire’s system. Jayme Thornton An electric Ford F-150 pickup, front trunk open, sat off to the side powering a bank of computers that operate the two drones. In the field, it will also process feeds from cameras mounted on poles throughout the forest—an early detection system that will trigger the scouting drone. This was designed by Alvarez, who happens to have a Ph.D. in biophysics, using an even newer version of image-reading AI developed just last year.All of the teams, Santy says, have proposed something broadly similar: sensors and cameras on the ground or on one or more drones, or both, and AI interpreting the data. How teams get to the fire has been driven by regulation—the FAA has restrictions on drones weighing more than 25 kilograms (55 pounds), as well as autonomous systems dropping payloads, which is why Rivas had to pilot the Alta X. “Some are looking at how we can address the problem within the current regulations, so they’re trying to stay within the 55 pounds,” says Santy. Others are designing systems that ultimately could be deployed only under new regulations. That primarily comes down to either using a swarm of smaller drones or one heavy-lift drone. Teams that fly heavy in the finals will have to get FAA approval for the contest, just as Crossfire would need it to operate the Alta X autonomously. Crossfire’s fire-suppression drone flies toward a fire carrying a balloon full of water. Jayme ThorntonCuriously, the XPrize appears not to have spurred much innovation in actually putting out a fire. Most teams are using water, though they’re dropping it in a variety of different ways. It’s a work in progress, says Santy. “Teams have been thinking very hard about what works under challenging conditions” like wind, drone movement, and proximity to the fire. The University of Maryland’s Dahlia Andres works on the Crossfire team’s fire-suppression drone.Jayme ThorntonCrossfire’s approach of detonating water balloons in midair—which has yet to be patented so the team would not describe it in detail—could eventually change the calculation about how much suppressant is needed to fight fires. Typically, aircraft flying at high altitude release a lot of water, which, says Trouvé, mostly misses the burning biomass. “Releasing the water at low elevations and directly above the burning biomass requires much less water,” he says.With a new balloon installed on the Alta X, the team attempted to attack the fire a second time. This time, Rivas spent several minutes maneuvering the drone to get it in place before dropping the balloon, which appeared to partially detonate, spewing water as it fell. The balloon didn’t completely burst until it hit the platform, spraying water all over and creating a huge puff of steam. But when the smoke cleared, the fire still burned. Crossfire’s detonators, it turned out, were rated for warmer weather than this October day. “We’ve tested this probably 20 different times, and 20 different times it’s been successful,” Alvarez said ruefully. Crossfire’s drone carries a water balloon skyward, finds the fire, and drops the balloon. Jayme ThorntonBut the third attempt, several hours later, was the charm. Rivas whisked the Alta X over the fire. Taha, on the other side of the fire, checked its position and motioned for release. The balloon exploded a few meters below the drone, and a shower of water blanketed the fire. The thermal camera on the observation drone confirmed the fire had been extinguished. Muted “yays” and a smattering of applause broke out. Crossfire’s Abdullah Shamsan, Derek Paley, Matthew Ayd, and Joshua Gaus [from left] monitor a drone flight. Jayme ThorntonCrossfire is already looking beyond the competition, regardless of whether it makes it to the finals in 2026. Along with Taha, aerospace engineering professor Derek Paley has talked to some 40 potential customers—mainly fire departments and government agencies—for the system Crossfire is developing. He’s currently uncertain whether there are enough organizations willing to adopt the technology to make it commercially viable. So far, he says, “it’s a little bit of an uphill battle, but we’re hoping with the visibility brought to the problem by XPrize” and the momentum of being a finalist—and, better still, some prize money in hand—“we’ll have enough to have a compelling business model.”Roper, of the Western Fire Chiefs Association, acknowledges that “political considerations” around existing fleets of crewed aircraft will challenge the transition to drones, but he says that these can gain a foothold by operating when and where crewed aircraft can’t, at night, for example. Still, it will take multiple companies commercializing the technology to prod fire departments to purchase drones. Even then, he says, “it’s probably going to have to be adopted either at the federal or the state level first and then there’s a trickle-down effect to the local fire departments.”If not, Paley says, “our tech is applicable to law enforcement, and other aspects of public safety. It’s just a question of, are we starting a wildfire company, or are we starting a robotics company.”
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