While firefighters risk their lives entering burning forests, a group of Kenyan students is asking a different question: what if technology could identify the danger before the flames spread , and send machines where humans should not?
A team of Kenyan students is turning to artificial intelligence and robotics in an attempt to develop new ways of detecting, preventing and mitigating wildfires as they prepare to represent the country at the 2026 First Global Challenge in Incheon, South Korea.
The students, known as Team Kenya, have developed an artificial intelligence system called ASAL AI, designed to scan areas across Kenya and identify locations considered vulnerable to wildfires. The system then assigns vulnerability scores to the areas it identifies, potentially giving authorities and communities information that could be used to take preventive action before fires become difficult to control.
The project comes at a time when wildfires remain a concern in Kenya, with recent fires reported around the Mount Kenya forest. The country’s experience with forest fires has given the students a local problem to tackle as they prepare to take their idea to an international stage.
But the students’ solution is not limited to predicting where fires could occur.
They are also building a robot.
Team Kenya has developed a lightweight robotic machine designed around the requirements of this year’s FIRST Global competition. The robot has to be capable of being suspended above the ground during a simulated wildfire, meaning that keeping its weight low became one of the team’s major engineering challenges.
The students say getting the machine to its current form was far from straightforward.
Their development process involved months of experimentation, testing and redesign. At one point, the team was forced to abandon an earlier design after discovering that it was too heavy, lacked practical functionality and contained components that failed to work as expected.
Instead of stopping there, the students went back to the drawing board and redesigned the machine.
That process of failure and rebuilding has become part of the team’s preparation for one of the world’s largest youth robotics competitions.
The First Global Challenge brings together student teams from more than 190 countries, with the 2026 competition scheduled to take place in Incheon, South Korea, from October 7 to 10. This year’s theme, Igniting Innovation, focuses specifically on wildfire prevention, mitigation and recovery.
Under the competition’s theme, students are expected to explore how engineering and technology can be used to address the threat posed by wildfires. The challenge therefore gives Team Kenya an opportunity to test its ideas alongside young innovators from around the world.
The Kenyan team consists of students with interests ranging from robotics and engineering to programming and problem-solving. According to the team’s official First Global profile, members include Richwell, Ryan Onjala, Jeremy, Ryan Magara, Imani, Wisdom, Jamal, Mitchelle, Hesbon, Beryl, Michael, Glen, Samuel, Rachael, Andrea, Staceyann and Frankxavier.
For the students, the competition is about more than building a machine that can perform a task.
They are attempting to apply technology to a problem that affects Kenya directly.
Their ASAL AI system is intended to identify areas at greater risk of wildfire, allowing preventive measures to be considered before an emergency develops. One of the interventions proposed by the team involves the use of hydrogels in soil.
The material can absorb water and release it gradually during dry periods. The students believe that keeping soil and vegetation sufficiently moist could potentially help reduce conditions that allow fires to spread.
The idea combines artificial intelligence with a physical intervention: AI identifies vulnerable areas, while measures such as hydrogels could potentially help reduce the conditions that make those areas susceptible to fire.
Their approach reflects the broader objective of this year’s FIRST Global Challenge, which asks young people to investigate technology-based solutions for wildfire prevention, mitigation and recovery rather than focusing solely on fighting fires once they have already spread.
The students are therefore approaching the problem from different stages of a wildfire.
Detect the risk. Prevent where possible. Use robotics to respond to the challenge.
That approach could become particularly relevant in areas where human firefighters face difficult terrain or dangerous conditions.
However, Team Kenya’s work remains a developing innovation rather than an operational firefighting system already deployed across the country. The ASAL AI system and robot are being developed and tested in connection with the students’ international competition.
Their journey also illustrates some of the difficulties young innovators face when attempting to turn an idea into working technology.
A concept that appears simple on paper can become considerably more complicated once engineering begins. The team’s first robot design had to be abandoned after months of work because of its weight and functionality problems. The students then had to redesign the machine while working against the demands of the competition.
Despite those setbacks, the team has continued developing the technology and is now preparing to take its work to South Korea.
Team Kenya says it represents the Kenyan spirit of Harambee, bringing together students from different backgrounds around science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Its official profile describes the students as the next generation of Kenyan problem-solvers seeking to use STEM skills to address global challenges.
And as Kenya continues to experience the consequences of wildfires, the students’ project raises a provocative question about the future of firefighting:
Could the people helping Kenya fight its next major wildfire be young engineers controlling machines and algorithms rather than firefighters standing directly in the flames?
For now, the students are not replacing firefighters. They are still testing an idea.
But in October, their AI system and lightweight robot will leave the classroom and face an international test in South Korea, where Team Kenya will compete against students from around the world in a challenge built around one of the planet’s increasingly urgent environmental threats.
