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ON CAMPUS
So you guys are putting forth the effort, doing everything you’ re supposed to do. I’ m not going to fail you.’ That gave us the reassurance to continue on with the project.”
Robertson and Tran’ s idea did work and it has practical uses. Tran says sound technology can be used to douse kitchen fires, chemical blazes common in research labs, and in space stations. The duo are starting a company that develops technology for fire protection.
They encourage any university students with‘ out there’ ideas to pursue and create, because many technologies that exist today were previously thought impossible.
“ Believe in yourself. Keep going for it,” Tran said.“ You can be a dreamer but it’ s a thin line between a dreamer and the one who does it, so just continue with it.”
Campus Review spoke to the duo about how the wave extinguisher works, their new found internet fame and where to from here.
CR: Where did the concept for the Wave Extinguisher begin? VT: Seth and I met back in freshman year. Coincidentally, we had a class together throughout the whole four or five years we were [ undergraduates ] and ended up in the same senior design project.
We were presented with other professors’ ideas but we weren’ t interested in them. We came across a headline on the internet stating‘ Fire fighters in the future will be using sound to put out fire’ and we were intrigued by the whole concept.
We are electrical engineers, so we knew nothing of fire and combustion and all of the chemistry side of things. But we were fascinated and decided to present that idea.
Slowly but surely, we just kept [ at it ]. I asked Seth if [ he thought ] we should continue, because we didn’ t know if it was going to work. He said with a lot of determination that,‘ We’ ve made it this far why not just continue.’ From then on out, we just put our heads down and put a lot of work and focus into trying to make this a feasible, practical thing.
What advice would you have for students who have similarly out-there ideas but may be dissuaded by people who tell them it can’ t be done? SR: If you think about the world a hundred years ago, so many things seemed impossible. I’ m sure when Orville and Wilber Wright were developing airplanes, many people told them humans would never fly.
There are so many technologies today that seemed unheard of so many years ago. So if it’ s something that you want to move forward with, then you need to go for it. Don’ t half way, do it – put your all into it. You’ re going to have some failures but eventually you’ re going see some success. Even if turns out not to be a viable option, you have to think of everything you learned from the journey. From the scope of coming through it, your knowledge about the subject has greatly increased.
Speaking about the wave extinguisher itself, how does your device work, and how does it put out fire with sound? SR: For fire to exist, you need fuel, heat and oxygen. Sound moves as a pressure wave, in which you oscillate between areas of high pressure and low pressure. Oxygen wants to travel between areas of low pressure. So when pressure is decreased, at these lower areas of pressure, so is the temperature. In essence, you are removing heat. And by agitating the oxygen molecules through a sound wave, you are also removing oxygen. Removing oxygen and removing heat, that’ s what suppresses the fire.
What are some of the practical uses you see for this technology? VT: It could be used in a lot of places. I would say right now the most practical one would be kitchen fires. We still have a lot of testing to do. But I think [ the technology ] would save a lot of house fires from becoming what they are. It could be in research labs where there are chemical fires because it works well with class B fires, which are chemical flames, liquid flames. We can even see eventually going into space stations – closed quarters where you wouldn’ t want to emit any toxic chemicals.
I think sound is a lot more efficient and there is less to clean up. It also saves equipment from further damage.
It’ s just a matter of time and testing to figure it all out. To get there will take a little bit of testing and funding. We’ re trying to find funding.
We have a lot of bushfires in Australia. Would it be able to work in some capacity for that? VT: I would say that our technology is not equipped to approach forest fires. I think with approaches such as swarm robotics it would be better suited to do so, because forest fires, bushfires and wildfires are generally more dynamic than your contained structure fire or kitchen fire. There is a lot more testing that needs to be done.
What does it feel like to be internet sensations with this? Your YouTube video has gone viral. SR: It’ s pretty exciting. We had no intentions of this when the project started. We had no intentions of even having a video that was popular on the internet. It just kind of caught wind. We were just trying to make a project to pass the class and do something exciting. We’ ve all seen viral videos with people doing crazy things. This is positive and it’ s an actual technology, innovation. It’ s something that’ s not normally broadcast in the news but it has gone viral. I’ m glad it’ s a positive video; something that’ s educational and inspiring [ has gone viral ] instead of something upsetting or violent. For that reason, I’ m glad it went the way it did. It’ s exciting. VT: The ironic thing about it is we got in a little trouble when our first video came out that we publicised for our first senior design project. We needed to present it in front of our class and faculty. When we put up that video... we were emailed by the fire chief, telling us to take it down.
He then provided us with a crew of professional videographers with special equipment that made the video and somehow The Washington Post got a hold of that. They sent their crew to videotape the demo of our fire extinguisher. After the Washington Post video, no pun intended, it went like wildfire. It was a little overwhelming because it was in the middle of our semester. It was hard for me to study because I was up late at night checking the views [ and number ] of people sharing it on Facebook and it would be everywhere from Indonesia to the Czech Republic to Australia. Name a place, it was shared there. Even to this day it’ s being shared, which is very exciting. SR: For a couple of days it was the number one trending topic on Facebook.
What are the next big things in store for both of you? SR: We’ ve developed a company by the name of Force SV LLC and we’ re trying to revolutionise the fire protection industry. Not only with sound but in other types of technology also. We’ ll see what we can come up with and try to perfect what we have already with the wave extinguisher. VT: So that’ s step one. We’ re trying to grow and see where we can go with the vision we have created. ■
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