Flooding from torrential downpours is common throughout most of the world, and at times, the damage done can have irreversible effects on communities and can change lives forever.
That’s when Zeppelin Floods, a UC Irvine (UCI) software data startup, comes to the rescue.
Appropriately named after Led Zeppelin’s 1982 song “When the Levee Breaks,” Zeppelin Floods was created to detect if homeowners and business owners will be directly impacted by floods before it’s too late. Not too far from Led Zeppelin’s famous tunes, this technology has the potential to rock the flood boots off communities that are prone to flooding.
“We want to bring flood information down to the household and business level so that we could meet the need for decision making at that level, in real time,” said Brett Sanders, Zeppelin Floods co-founder and professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering. “We wanted to fill this space of decision-making support that wasn’t being filled by other data products.”
Typically flood warnings are made broadly in place for an entire region, which can cause people to be unsure about whether or not they will be personally impacted by floods. This can leave homeowners and business owners in the dark about how to navigate their own way out of flood zones while steering clear of other flood zones, figuring out the right time to pick up sandbags, or when to board up their homes and businesses.
In response to this uncertainty, Zeppelin Floods created a technology that uses existing weather forecasts to predict flood conditions in real time, anywhere from a few hours to a few days before flooding occurs. This technology is able to predict fine-scale flooding very quickly on a supercomputer to give advanced notice of flood conditions before they develop.
As one of the first participants of UCI Beall Applied Innovation’s I-Corps program – an experiential education and market discovery program – the startup was able to focus on the uniqueness of their real-time flood forecasting technology and think critically about the company’s value proposition. Those insights eventually led the team to the Proof of Product (POP) Grants program – which awards faculty innovators up to $100,000 to accelerate the development of commercially promising technologies – where they received funding to further understand the product market fit for their flood forecasting technology.
“What we accomplished with the POP Grant is now allowing us to confidently approach potential future partners in the weather forecasting field,” said co-founder and senior researcher Jochen Schubert. “It has increased our optimism for a path to market by identifying a better market fit for our technology.”
As for the future of the startup, Sanders envisions a future where Zeppelin Floods is fully utilized to help those in need.
“We envision a future where when hurricanes strike, we will know who and what is impacted and when,” said Sanders. “We want to help save lives, money and time.”
Learn more about Applied Innovation’s I-Corps and POP Grants programs.
Main Graphic: Kate Wokowsky, UCI Beall Applied Innovation