Managing Disaster And Disruption With AI, One Tree At A Time

Republished By Plato

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Sunlight through the trees in the forest. Surrey, UK

Supplementing data and AI models with domain-specific knowledge, in this case knowledge about trees, is what makes the difference for AiDash

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“We know each and every tree in the network. We know each and every asset in the network. We know their maintenance history. We know the health of the tree. Now, we can make predictions when we supplement that with weather information and the storm’s path in real-time. We don’t make a prediction that Texas will see this much damage. We make a prediction that this street in this city will see this much damage,” Singh said.

In addition to utilizing domain knowledge and a wide array of data, Singh also identified something else as key to AiDash’s success: serving the right amount of information to the right people the right way. All the data live and feed the elaborate models under the hood and are only exposed when needed — for example if required by regulation.

For the most part, what AiDash serves is solutions, not insights, as Singh put it. Users access DDMS via a mobile application and a web application. Mobile applications are meant to be used by people in the field, and they also serve to provide validation for the system’s predictions. For the people doing the planning, a web dashboard is provided, which they can use to see the status in real-time.

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DDMS is the latest addition to AiDash’s product suite, including the Intelligent Vegetation Management System, the Intelligent Sustainability Management System, the Asset Cockpit and Remote Monitoring & Inspection. DDMS is currently focused on storms and wildfires, with the goal being to extend it to other natural calamities like earthquakes and floods, Singh said.

The company’s plans also include extending its customer base to public authorities. As Singh said, when data for a certain region are available, they can be used to deliver solutions to different entities. Some of these could also be given free of charge to government entities, especially in a disaster scenario, as AiDash does not incur an incremental cost.

AiDash is headquartered in California, with its 215 employees spread in offices in San Jose and Austin in Texas, Washington DC, London and India. The company also has clients worldwide and has been seeing significant growth. As Singh shared, the goal is to go public around 2025.