Tech Transfer: Avalanche Detection

Guests: David Long, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at BYU; Andre Brummer and Nicholas Moller, Representatives of Niivatech; Spencer Rogers, Member of BYU’s Technology Transfer Office.  Over the last decade years, an average of 27 people have died in avalanches each winter in the United States, according to statistics gathered by the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. Ski resorts and federal land management officials spend a lot of time and effort attempting to predict where the next avalanche will happen, so they can prevent death, injury and damage to property.  BYU electrical engineering professor David Long and his students have developed an approach to predicting avalanches that entails radar 3D imaging.  More information about technology developed at BYU is available at techtransfer.byu.edu.