Skip to content

News Center | Georgia Institute of Technology Georgia Institute of Technology

Search

Search form

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
  • News Home
  • Campus Map
  • Directory
  • Offices

News Center

Menu
Close
  • Calendar
  • Categories
    • Business and Economic Development
    • Campus and Community
    • Earth and Environment
    • Health and Medicine
    • Science and Technology
    • Society and Culture
    • Feature Stories
  • Media Contacts
  • Experts
    • Find an Expert
    • Featured Expert
  • Daily Digest
  • The Whistle
    • Home
    • Classifieds
    • Archives
  • Social Media
  • Subscribe
  • You are here:
  • GT Home
  • Georgia Tech NewsCenter
  • Home
  • NSF Invests Another $750K in Student Startup FireHUD
Business and Economic Development

NSF Invests Another $750K in Student Startup FireHUD

US Air Force also has awarded a grant to adapt the startup’s system to monitor heat stress and exertion of recruits on base

By Joshua Stewart | December 2, 2019 • Atlanta, GA

FireHUD BioTrac Sensor
Click image to enlarge

FireHUD's BioTrac body-worn sensor, which collects real-time physiological data to monitor for overexertion. (Photo Courtesy: FireHUD)

Download Image

During the weekslong battle against wildfires in California this fall, thousands of firefighters worked around the clock to save lives and property.

It’s not hard to imagine those crews toiling past the point of exhaustion. Many likely did.

That’s exactly the kind of scenario the creators of FireHUD want to prevent. The Georgia Tech graduates have developed a wearable device that helps commanders keep track of firefighters’ vital signs while they work. It’s an idea with enough merit to have won two new grants this fall, including a second round of seed funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant means alumni Zack Braun, Tyler Sisk, and Joe Boettcher have $750,000 to continue refining their BioTrac Platform, and it’s a big vote of confidence in the platform’s technical and commercial viability. That brings the total investment from the NSF to nearly a million dollars.

“With our Phase I grant from NSF, we learned a lot very quickly,” said Braun, a 2016 computer science graduate and co-founder of FireHUD.

Those lessons included realizing that their initial concept — a heads-up display of environmental and biometric data for firefighters — wasn’t what they actually needed.

“Based on feedback from the first responders, we learned that firefighters themselves are focused on the job at hand and too busy to use a heads-up display. Really, the commander needs the [biometric] data so that they can best decide how to allocate their resources.”

Braun said the team learned fire chiefs needed a system that was easy to use, passive, and rugged. As a result, their product has evolved into a body-worn band, a long-range radio transceiver, and a real-time software dashboard. It allows on-scene commanders to make sure their crews aren’t overexerting themselves while they battle a blaze.

Braun called it the first commercially viable physiological monitoring platform tailored to first responders.

Braun and Sisk won the 2016 InVenture Prize for the original FireHUD idea. They also participated in CREATE-X, an initiative to support entrepreneurship among Georgia Tech students. Sisk finished his bachelor’s in electrical engineering in 2016, and he and Braun went to work full-time on the concept. They subsequently brought in Boettcher, another electrical engineering graduate from Tech, as chief development officer.

“User feedback has been crucial to the evolution of our system,” he said. “That is something that has been instilled in our company since the beginning of the CREATE-X program at Georgia Tech.”

Meanwhile, the trio also has received $750,000 to outfit a U.S. Air Force base with the system they developed with the first round of NSF funding.

“The platform will be used to monitor the health of all their recruits in real time as well as show the overall fitness trends of the recruits while they are at the Air Force base,” Braun said.

Through the NSF seed funding program, Boettcher, Braun, and Sisk will continue to receive mentoring, feedback from experts, and time to scale their product. Braun said they’re already in conversations with a manufacturer in Georgia to produce more of their devices, which they’ll market to first responders, the military, and industrial facilities.

Related Links

  • FireHUD
  • FireHUD's BioTrac Platform
  • Small Business Innovation Research grants
  • CREATE-X
  • InVenture Prize

Contact Information

Joshua Stewart

404.894.6016

Categories

Business and Economic Development

News Categories

  • Business and Economic Development
  • Campus and Community
  • Earth and Environment
  • Health and Medicine
  • Science and Technology
  • Society and Culture

Expert Voices

Sudheer Chava
Winners and Losers in the Retail Sector
Sudheer Chava
Scheller College of Business
Alex Hsu
Federal Rate Hike Predictions
Alex Hsu
Scheller College of Business

Featured Videos

After losing her sight due to reginitis pigmentosa at the age of 15, Aditi Shah earned two degrees in India before coming to Georgia Tech. She will leave Atlanta with a master's in computer science with a focus in cybersecurity and a goal to inspire the blind women in India to pursue their dreams.

A team of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and The Ohio State University has developed a material that uses magnetic fields to transform into a variety of shapes. The material could enable a range of new applications from antennas that change frequencies on the fly to gripper arms for delicate or heavy objects.

Georgia Tech hosts the 2019 US Swimming Championships.

Georgia Tech Resources

  • Offices & Departments
  • News Center
  • Campus Calendar
  • Special Events
  • GreenBuzz
  • Institute Communications
  • Visitor Resources
  • Campus Visits
  • Directions to Campus
  • Visitor Parking Information
  • GTvisitor Wireless Network Information
  • Georgia Tech Global Learning Center
  • Georgia Tech Hotel & Conference Center
  • Barnes & Noble at Georgia Tech
  • Ferst Center for the Arts
  • Robert C. Williams Paper Museum

Colleges, Instructional Sites & Research

  • Colleges
  • College of Computing
  • College of Design
  • College of Engineering
  • College of Sciences
  • Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts
  • Scheller College of Business
  • Instructional Sites
  • Georgia Tech-Lorraine
  • Georgia Tech-Savannah
  • Georgia Tech-Shenzhen
  • Georgia Tech Online
  • Professional Education
  • The Language Institute
  • Global Footprint
  • Global Engagement
  • Research
  • Georgia Tech Research Institute
  • Research at Georgia Tech
  • Executive Vice President for Research

Student & Parent Resources

  • Student Resources
  • Apply
  • BuzzPort
  • Buzzcard
  • Career Center
  • Co-ops & Internships
  • Commencement
  • Library
  • Student Life
  • Student Entrepreneurship
  • Study Abroad
  • T-Square
  • Parent Resources
  • Parent and Family Programs
  • Dean of Students
  • Scholarships & Financial Aid

Employee, Alumni, & Other Resources

  • Employees
  • Administration and Finance
  • Advising & Teaching
  • Faculty Affairs
  • Faculty Hiring
  • Human Resources
  • Office of the Provost
  • TechWorks
  • Alumni
  • Alumni Association
  • Alumni Career Services
  • Giving Back to Tech
  • Outreach
  • Startup Companies
  • Economic Development
  • Industry Engagement
  • Government & Community Partners
  • Professional Education
Map of News Center | Georgia Institute of Technology

Georgia Institute of Technology
North Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30332
Phone: (404) 894-2000

  • Contact Us
  • Site Feedback
  • Tech Lingo
  • Emergency Information
  • Legal & Privacy Information
  • Human Trafficking Notice
  • Accessibility
  • Accountability
  • Accreditation
  • Employment
Georgia Tech

© Georgia Institute of Technology