FireSense wins Rep. Susie Lee’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Nevada’s Third District

When asked what inspired the creation of FireSense, Rohitha Baskaran said, “‘Only you can save wildfires’. I love Smokey the Bear probably more than the average person; however, over the years, I have caught on that this ideal is actually not the best. As someone who’s visited over 37 American national parks, I have repeatedly seen the Smokey the Bear slogan over and over again, yet in 2025, we are still affected by wildfires more than ever, and it’s not just due to global warming. Our minds are simply outdated, and the only way we can see wildfires is through technology. As a senior in the International Baccalaureate program at my high school, I have gotten the opportunity to research the detrimental effects of the Smokey Bear campaign. Smokey Bear encourages us to put out every fire that we see; however, this medieval technique only further exacerbates the amount of dried-up brush that is on the forest floor. So when natural fires actually occur, there’s more fuel for them to set on fire. 

“Over time, I understood that Smokey the Bear’s campaign is actually not a one-size-fits-all solution, which is why I built my app, FireSense, in order to use artificial intelligence as a means of creating a customizable solution to all fire-related problems. Also, as someone who is very active on Facebook as well as the RingCentral community, I have seen a lot of fake posts that have gone unverified for days, and this made me understand that, in the status quo, there isn’t a metric that allows us to verify whether or not a report of a fire is actually accurate. This inspired me to use artificial intelligence in order to first verify whether or not the fire is real before running an analysis and verification. 

“I have also understood that there are no other apps on the market today that analyze the future health of the fire. While Facebook and RingCentral do a very mediocre job recording these fires, they don’t provide the future of the fire, which my app is able to do. There have been many fires, including the Mount Charleston fire, that have been miscalculated; however, by using my app, I ensure that we not only focus on the current but also focus on the future. I would like to make not only my hiking experience but also my city life better. Only FireSense can save wildfires.”