NYU Tandon researchers develop new AI system that leverages standard security cameras to detect fires in seconds; could transform emergency response

NYU Tandon School of Engineering

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Fire kills nearly 3,700 Americans annually and destroys $23 billion in property, with many deaths occurring because traditional smoke detectors fail to alert occupants in time.

Now, the NYU Fire Research Group at NYU Tandon School of Engineering has developed an artificial intelligence system that could significantly improve fire safety by detecting fires and smoke in real-time using ordinary security cameras already installed in many buildings.

Published in the IEEE Internet of Things Journal, the research demonstrates a system that can analyze video footage and identify fires within 0.016 seconds per frame—faster than the blink of an eye—potentially providing crucial extra minutes for evacuation and emergency response. Unlike conventional smoke detectors that require significant smoke buildup and proximity to activate, this AI system can spot fires in their earliest stages from video alone.

"The key advantage is speed and coverage," explained lead researcher Prabodh Panindre, Research Associate Professor in NYU Tandon’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE). "A single camera can monitor a much larger area than traditional detectors, and we can spot fires in the initial stages before they generate enough smoke to trigger conventional systems."

The need for improved fire detection technology is evident from concerning statistics: 11% of residential fire fatalities occur in homes where smoke detectors failed to alert occupants, either due to malfunction or the complete absence of detectors. Moreover, modern building materials and open floor plans have made fires spread faster than ever before, with structural collapse times significantly reduced compared to legacy construction.

The NYU Tandon research team developed an ensemble approach that combines multiple state-of-the-art AI algorithms. Rather than relying on a single AI model that might mistake a red car or sunset for fire, the system requires agreement between multiple algorithms before confirming a fire detection, substantially reducing false alarms, a critical consideration in emergency situations.

The researchers trained their models by building a comprehensive custom image dataset representing all five classes of fires recognized by the National Fire Protection Association, from ordinary combustible materials to electrical fires and cooking-related incidents. The system achieved notable accuracy rates, with the best-performing model combination reaching 80.6% detection accuracy.

The system incorporates temporal analysis to differentiate between actual fires and static fire-like objects that could trigger false alarms. By monitoring how the size and shape of detected fire regions change over consecutive video frames, the algorithm can distinguish between a real, growing fire and a static image of flames hanging on a wall. "Real fires are dynamic, growing and changing shape," explained Sunil Kumar, Professor of MAE. "Our system tracks these changes over time, achieving 92.6% accuracy in eliminating false detections."

The technology operates within a cloud-based Internet of Things architecture where multiple standard security cameras stream raw video to servers that perform AI analysis. When fire is detected, the system automatically generates video clips and sends real-time alerts via email and text message. This design means the technology can be implemented using existing CCTV infrastructure without requiring expensive hardware upgrades, an important advantage for widespread adoption.

This technology can be integrated into drones or unmanned aerial vehicles to search for wildfires in remote forested areas. Early-stage wildfire detection would buy critical hours in the race to contain and extinguish them, enabling faster dispatch of resources, and prioritized evacuation orders that dramatically reduce ecological and property loss.

To improve the safety of firefighters and assist during fire response, the same detection system can be embedded into the tools firefighters already carry: helmet cameras, thermal imagers, and vehicle-mounted cameras, as well as into autonomous firefighting robots. In urban areas, UAVs integrated with this technology can help the fire service in performing 360-degree size-up, especially when fire is on higher floors of high-rise structures.

“It can remotely assist us in confirming the location of the fire and possibility of trapped occupants,” said Capt. John Ceriello from the Fire Department of New York City.

Beyond fire detection, the researchers note their approach could be adapted for other emergency scenarios such as security threats or medical emergencies, potentially expanding how we monitor and respond to various safety risks in our society.

In addition to Panindre and Kumar, the research team includes Nanda Kalidindi (’18 MS Computer Science, NYU Tandon), Shantanu Acharya (’23 MS Computer Science, NYU), and Praneeth Thummalapalli (’25 MS Computer Science, NYU Tandon).

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Journal

IEEE Internet of Things Journal

DOI

10.1109/JIOT.2025.3598979 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Artificial intelligence-integrated autonomous IoT alert system for real-time remote fire and smoke detection in live video streams

 

Precise imaging technique confirms hemoglobin preservation in dinosaur bone

North Carolina State University

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Vessels isolated from B. canadensis cortical bone by demineralization in EDTA

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Credit: North Carolina State University

A new study from North Carolina State University identifies vertebrate hemoglobin in bone extracts from two dinosaurs and shows that this molecule is original to those animals. The work also shows how heme, a small molecule that gives hemoglobin the ability to transport oxygen in blood, degrades over time. The study both adds to the body of evidence that biological remains can and do persist across deep time in some fossils and provides further insight into the process of fossilization.

Soft, stretchy tissues recovered from two dinosaurs – Brachylophosaurus canadensis and Tyrannosaurus rex – have been the subject of numerous studies over the last two decades, with researchers using a variety of methods including high resolution imaging, antibody testing and protein sequencing to characterize the remains as biological tissues from the dinosaurs themselves.

In a new study in Proceedings of the Royal Society A, researchers used Resonance Raman (RR) imaging of the tissues to confirm the presence of both heme bound to globin proteins and heme bound to goethite, a mineral associated with iron oxidization.

“Raman spectroscopy essentially uses light waves to identify a molecule’s energetic ‘fingerprint,’” says Hans Hallen, professor of physics at NC State and corresponding author of the study. “Resonance Raman, which we use here, takes that process one step further by using light that is already tuned to the molecule of interest – so only that type of molecule will resonate.

“Additionally, that molecule type resonates to give a higher signal level so that its signal ‘overwhelms’ the signals from other types of molecules,” Hallen adds. “This strong signal allows us to find the needle (hemoglobin remnants) in the haystack (messy fossil) to see how this molecule has changed from the functional living state, revealing the chemical changes molecules undergo in deep time.”

The researchers used RR to target molecules with a heme-globin bond. They looked at samples from Brachylophosaurus, T. rex, demineralized modern ostrich bone and human blood.

“The signal increase shows that hemoglobin is present, but changes in the signal also allow us to see that as the hemoglobin degrades, goethite may form on the iron within hemoglobin,” Hallen says. “We can also pinpoint where the ring-like structure of heme is being damaged. And we saw this process in both modern and ancient samples, so we know that it happens fairly quickly after death.”

The results also rule out the possibility of sample contamination.

“Raman spectroscopy will tell you what molecular bonds are present, but molecular bonds aren’t exclusive, so those bonds could come from anywhere,” says Mary Schweitzer, emeritus professor of biology at NC State and study co-author. “RR identifies both bonds and structure. So we know that heme is there, and that it is still bound to hemoglobin protein – contaminants like bacteria don’t have those specific bonds, so we can say that the molecules are from the animal, or in this case, the dinosaur.”

The researchers also point out that understanding how heme degrades and changes over time could help explain how fossilization occurs and why molecules can persist through millions of years.

“While the biggest finding is that we can use RR to show that pieces of hemoglobin can persist for tens of millions of years, we’ve also gotten some incredible insight into how the molecule has changed,” Hallen says. “Goethite is a mineral crystal that is known to be bio-related; that is, it forms from biological action. But we didn’t know that it could bind to and stabilize protein fragments.”

“Heme has been identified in sediments that are much, much older than dinosaurs, so we know that it persists,” Schweitzer says. “Understanding why hemoglobin preserves, and the role that heme plays in the process, is really important if we want to know how these ancient molecules survive through time.”

The study was supported by the National Science Foundation through grant ECCS-1710987, and by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Brandon Long, former Ph.D. student at NC State, is the first author. Former NC State lab manager Wenxia Zheng also contributed to the work.

-peake-

Note to editors: An abstract follows.

“Resonance Raman Confirms Partial Hemoglobin Preservation in Dinosaur Remains”

DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2025.0175

Authors: B. J.N. Long, W. Zheng, M. Schweitzer, H. D. Hallen, North Carolina State University
Published: Sept. 10, 2025 in Proceedings of the Royal Society A

Abstract:
Still-soft, hollow, flexible structures morphologically consistent with blood vessels, cells (osteocytes) and collagenous matrix were recovered from demineralized bone of a number of Mesozoic vertebrate remains, but the origin of these materials is hotly debated, in part because it refutes taphonomic models of degradation. Here we apply the double selectivity of resonance Raman to show the presence of heme that is still bound to a protein moiety in these tissues. Evidence of heme degradation is found. Additional data support a diagenetic pathway, showing that heme is also bound to the mineral goethite. This suggests the dual role that iron may play in facilitating cross-linking of organic residues and stabilizing those residues by association with iron mineral.

Vessels isolated from Tyrannosaurus cortical bone by demineralization in EDTA

Credit

North Carolina State University

Journal

Proceedings of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences

DOI

10.1098/rspa.2025.0175 

Method of Research

Imaging analysis

Subject of Research

Animal tissue samples

Article Title

Resonance Raman confirms partial haemoglobin preservation in dinosaur remains

Article Publication Date

10-Sep-2025

 

Dragonflies survived asteroids - But wildfires and climate change may push them to extinction

New CU Denver study finds adaptation alone may not be fast enough to protect species in a rapidly changing climate

University of Colorado Denver

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CU Denver PhD studet Sarah Nalley used 40 years of publicly available data and found “ornamented” dragonflies are disappearing from burned habitats and hotter regions across the U.S. Thermal imaging reveals that the dark melanin spots on their wings absorb heat faster, causing males to overheat.

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Credit: University of Colorado Denver, Paul Wedlake

A new study led by University of Colorado Denver has uncovered how climate change and intensifying wildfires are disrupting dragonfly mating traits—threatening to push some species toward local extinction.

The research, published in Nature Climate Change, shows that dragonflies with dark wing spots—traits long linked to attracting mates—are now more vulnerable in a warming world. Dragonflies play an essential role in ecosystems: they are major predators of mosquitoes and serve as food for birds, fish, and amphibians. Their decline will ripple through entire food webs.

“Dragonflies have survived asteroids, but now climate change and wildfires are threatening them in ways evolution can’t keep up with,” said lead author Sarah Nalley, a PhD student in CU Denver’s Integrative Biology program. “Our findings suggest that adaptation alone may not be fast enough to protect species in a rapidly changing climate.”

Data and Citizen Science

Using 40 years of publicly available data, the study found that these “ornamented” dragonflies are disappearing from burned habitats and hotter regions across the U.S. Thermal imaging reveals that the dark melanin spots on their wings absorb heat faster, causing males to overheat. As a result, they spend more time resting and recovering and less time competing for mates. Unlike the classic case of peppered moths during the Industrial Revolution, where wing color affected survival by helping moths avoid predators, in dragonflies, wing coloration affects reproductive success—showing that survival alone isn’t the full story and that changes in mating dynamics can push populations toward extinction.

The study highlights an underexplored piece of conservation biology: while scientists often measure whether species can grow and survive in hotter, drier environments, this research shows that traits linked to reproduction may be even more critical. If dragonflies cannot successfully attract mates, entire populations may vanish.

“This changes how we think about vulnerability,” said CU Denver Assistant Professor Michael Moore, a co-author. “It’s not just about whether animals can survive after wildfire—it’s about whether they can reproduce in those modified environments. That’s the key to long-term survival.”

Class Project and Tragedy Turned Breakthrough

The study began as an assignment in one of Moore’s classes and relied entirely on publicly available data from sources such as the U.S. Geological Survey (wildfire burn areas), citizen science observations, and federal climate datasets. No outside funding supported the work.

But for Nalley, the research also carried personal meaning. She lost her home in Superior, Colorado, during the 2021 Marshall Fire and, as a nontraditional student who took time away from school, that experience helped her realize she could channel her passion for wildlife into becoming a conservation biologist.
“I knew I wanted to study animals—and after the fire, I knew I wanted to study wildfires too,” said Nalley. “That experience pushed me to ask how animals are affected not just by surviving a fire, but by whether they can still reproduce and carry on the species afterward.”

Why Dragonflies Matter

Beyond dragonflies, the findings carry broad implications for biodiversity and conservation. If dragonflies—resilient predators that have been on Earth for hundreds of millions of years—are vulnerable, that signals deeper risks for many species.
The research underscores the urgency of rethinking wildlife management strategies to account not just for survival, but also for mating behaviors and reproductive success.

“Working with Sarah pushed me to think about my own research in a new way,” said Moore. “She came in with great questions about wildfires and reproduction that made me reconsider how I approach these big ecological issues.”

A dragonfly with dark wing spots—traits long linked to attracting mates.

Credit

University of Colorado Denver, Paul Wedlake

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Journal

Nature Climate Change

DOI

10.1038/s41558-025-02417-8 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Showy dragonflies are being driven extinct by warming and wildfire

Article Publication Date

10-Sep-2025

 

The smallest herbivores create the biggest impact for grassland forage

Prairie dogs and grasshoppers do more than their larger herbivore counterparts in keeping soil and plant nutrients cycling

Smithsonian

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New research shows prairie dogs play an outsized role in nutrient cycling, adding to their list of beneficial services as ecosystem engineers.

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Credit: Ann Batdorf, Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

Soil nutrients support plants, and the animals who consume plants return these nutrients to the soil, creating a nutrient cycle. In a new study published in Ecology, scientists from the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) found that in prairie grasslands, the smallest herbivores—namely prairie dogs and grasshoppers—increase rates of nutrient cycling to a greater degree than larger herbivores such as bison and cattle.

Grasslands cover 25-40% of the land on Earth and provide many benefits to the environment, including sequestering carbon, controlling erosion and hosting a diversity of life. Yet grasslands are some of the most threated terrestrial ecosystems, and herbivores, which play critical roles in nutrient cycling in grassland ecosystems, face many conservation challenges. In North America, both bison and prairie dogs likely number only 1-2% of the populations of animals that roamed the Great Plains prior to European arrival. In the interest of identifying how these herbivores shape grassland ecosystems, researchers examined the contributions of prairie dogs, grasshoppers, bison and cattle on grass and soil nutrition across 15 shortgrass prairie sites in northeast Montana, an area of active research representing a collage of conservation, ranching and agricultural landscapes.

“Herbivores contribute to the green food web by turning plant tissues into urine and dung that provide new plant growth with readily available nutrients,” said Ellen Welti, NZCBI community ecologist and the study’s senior author. “This cycles nutrients at a faster rate than the brown food web, where plant tissues slowly senesce and degrade before nutrients become available for uptake by future plants.”

Of all the herbivores studied, researchers found prairie dogs contributed the greatest benefit to the nutrient availability on the prairie. Prairie dog towns had greatest levels of carbon and nitrogen in the soil, concentrations that increased with a greater presence of the smallest of the studied herbivores—grasshoppers. The prairie dogs also increased local nitrogen, potassium and magnesium in grass tissue, likely through their excretions and by burrowing, which helped incorporate the nutrients into the soil. Additionally, grasshoppers increased phosphorus in the soil.

The researchers also found grasshoppers are likely responsible for the characteristic peak in plant biomass during mid-summer on the prairie, before it drops off in the late growing season. The seasonal life cycles of grasshoppers, with small nymphs hatching in the spring growing to large hungry adults in the late summer and fall, is likely what causes these declines in plant biomass at the end of the growing season. In contrast to grasshoppers, the large herbivores studied, cattle and bison, consumed relatively constant levels of plant biomass across the summer.

“This study shows there are many different interactions occurring between herbivores and the greater grassland ecosystem,” said Julie Rebh, the study’s lead author who conducted the research as an intern at NZCBI. “While the presence of some smaller herbivores such as prairie dogs and grasshoppers may not be as obvious, the impact they have on grassland ecology is considerable.”

The study points to the need to conserve and restore not just the larger grazers, but also the small, unsung heroes of prairie dogs and grasshoppers to maintain nutrient cycling and fully functioning grassland ecosystems.

Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI)

NZCBI leads the Smithsonian’s global effort to save species, better understand ecosystems and train future generations of conservationists. Its two campuses are home to more than 2,200 animals, including some of the world’s most critically endangered species. Always free of charge, the Zoo’s 163-acre park in the heart of Washington, D.C., features animals representing 400 species and is a popular destination for children and families. At the Conservation Biology Institute’s 3,200-acre campus in Virginia, breeding and veterinary research on nearly 250 animals representing 20 species provide critical data for the management of animals in human care and valuable insights for conservation of wild populations. NZCBI’s 305 staff and scientists work in Washington, D.C., Virginia and with partners at field sites across the United States and in more than 30 countries to save wildlife, collaborate with communities and conserve native habitats. NZCBI is a long-standing accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. 

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Journal

Ecology

DOI

10.1002/ecy.70192 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Herbivore effects on plant quality and quantity in a shortgrass prairie

Article Publication Date

10-Sep-2025

Study: Some Chicago clubs use racist tactics to discourage Black patrons

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau

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Some nightclubs in Chicago use tactics such as charging Black men inflated prices for drinks or turning them away at the door and not permitting them inside, a team led by sociology professor Reuben A. Buford May found in a recent study. However, these discriminatory practices — which May calls “velvet rope racism” — are not unique to Chicago, as May has found them in establishments across the U.S. that may use them to discourage racial and ethnic minorities from visiting.

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Credit: Photo by Fred Zwicky

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Some urban nightclubs in Chicago may charge Black patrons more for drinks compared with white patrons or use other tactics to discourage their patronage, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Illinois sociology department head and professor Reuben A. Buford May investigated possible discriminatory practices in pricing and access in Chicago nightclubs by sending pairs of similarly dressed Black men and white men to 30 clubs that were located in a central nightlife district. The men visited the clubs on Friday and Saturday nights over two weekends. On average, the white testers paid $12.85 each for their drinks while the two Black testers were charged about 24 cents more for the same drinks, said May, who cowrote the paper with sociology professor Matthew Soener and doctoral students Carileigh Jones and Quinesha Bentley.

The team published their findings in the journal Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World.

While conducting observations in one of Chicago’s central nightlife areas prior to the study, May, who is Black, noted that on several occasions he was charged for ice in his drinks while white patrons who ordered the same drinks were not. He said that those discrepancies became the impetus for the current study.

“I never would have thought about differences in alcohol prices, especially with the point-of-sale computers that we have now where staff just have to push a button for each item,” May said. “I would not have known this if I hadn’t started seeing these extra charges and asking the people next to me what they were charged. And so it just made me wonder where this is going on and why?”

May has been examining exclusionary policies in nightclubs for nearly two decades, including bouncers using fictitious reservations lists or discriminatory dress codes to deny access to Black patrons — practices that May called “velvet rope racism” in a 2018 study. However, the problem is not unique to Chicago, as May demonstrated in that study. Using high-profile media reports, he tracked incidents of racial discrimination in access that had occurred at clubs across the U.S.

For the new study, the team randomly selected 30 bars in the same central Chicago area that stayed open past 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. Establishments like these that focus on late-night entertainment for patrons age 21 and older typically are where anti-Black gatekeeping practices tend to occur, May said.

Accordingly, the team noted during their observations that doormen at bars in the area charged variable admission fees based on customers’ race. Establishments may use these patron-sorting strategies to discourage racial minorities from visiting or limit their numbers, practices that have been documented in prior studies conducted in other cities, the team wrote.

A pair of Black men and a pair of white men who were similar in height, weight and physical stature were selected for the study in Chicago. All of the men wore similar attire — polo shirts, blue jeans and casual shoes — that is generally considered appropriate for nightclubs.

The testers were sent to each club alone, where they were to gain entry, paying an admission fee if the bouncer imposed one. Once inside, each man was to approach the bartender and, using a standardized script, request the same drink — a single pour of a specific brand of whiskey and of cola on the rocks. Each man paid with a credit card, keeping the itemized transaction slip and customer copy of the receipt to review with May at the end of the evening.

While in the bar, the first tester to visit shared the bartender’s description and location with the other team members by group chat to ensure that everyone was served by the same person. Each tester also made notes on his phone about his interactions with the bouncers and bartenders, along with his observations about the clientele inside the club, according to the study.

Given the uniformity of their orders, that all of them used the same bartender and that each establishment had touch-screen computers to ensure standardized pricing, each man should have been charged the same amount every time, May said.

However, of the 118 drinks the Black testers purchased, there were five instances in which they were charged more than the white testers. At one club, each of the white testers paid $16.13 for their drinks while the Black testers paid $18.44 and $19.60, the receipts indicated. At another nightclub, one of the Black testers was charged $24.51 — $4.07 more than the second Black tester and both of those who were white. Not once were the white testers charged more than those who were Black, the team found.

“There are motives that owners have for doing this that may not necessarily have to do with their predispositions about race,” May said. “After all, you can make the argument that there are people that go to these nightclubs that don’t particularly care to be around Black people. If you’re trying to make money, then you will use discriminatory practices to limit Black patrons’ participation so that you can retain your patronage from white people and other groups who are comfortable with one another.”

Bouncers’ biased assumptions that Black people lack the discretionary income or willingness to spend it may be affirmed when these patrons refuse to pay higher prices “and they may not choose to come back, which is the desired effect in many of these clubs,” May said.  

May and other researchers have found that doormen may use racist perceptions about socioeconomic status or propensity for violence to deny admission to racial and ethnic minorities, particularly Black men. In the current project, there were two instances where doormen at different clubs turned away one of the Black testers. At the first club, Black tester 1 was told reservations were required before midnight, although the other three testers were admitted after him. And at the second club, Black tester 2 was told that admission was limited to guests at a private party, although two of the testers had already been admitted and the fourth was admitted after him.

“This study is only a small part of a larger study I’ve done, and I’m writing a book on that right now. In the book, I’ll provide in-depth details about how these things are working in establishments across the country,” May said.

 

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Journal

Socius Sociological Research for a Dynamic World

DOI

10.1177/23780231251363299 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Antiblack Discrimination in Public Accommodations: Differential Drink Pricing in Urban Nightclubs

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