Across the American West, from the Pacific Coast and forested foothills through the Great Basin and into the Mountain West, wildfires are no longer isolated seasonal events. They are a growing regional systems challenge affecting communities, utilities, transportation corridors, watersheds, public lands, housing, and economic stability. As fire seasons become longer, hotter, and more destructive, the need is not only for better emergency response, but for better visibility, coordination, and decision-making before, during, and after a fire.This challenge invites teams to build solutions that use reality capture, geospatial data, sensors, AI, digital twins, and related technologies to help communities and agencies anticipate risk earlier, protect critical infrastructure, support faster and safer response, and accelerate damage assessment and recovery. The opportunity is to create tools that turn fragmented data into actionable intelligence, helping the region move from reactive firefighting to proactive resilience.

‍Problem Statement One: How might we use reality capture and related technologies to identify wildfire risk earlier and help communities in the Mountain West and California protect people, infrastructure, and landscapes before disaster strikes?

‍Problem Statement Two: How might we equip emergency managers, utilities, and recovery teams with faster, more accurate post-fire intelligence so they can assess damage, prioritize action, and rebuild more resiliently?

Rare earth minerals are essential to advanced technology, energy systems, manufacturing, and long-term supply chain resilience. This challenge invites teams to explore how reality capture and advanced technologies can improve how these resources are identified, assessed, monitored, and brought toward responsible development.

‍Problem Statement One: How might we use reality capture and related technologies to improve the way rare earth and mineral resources are identified, documented, assessed, monitored, or brought toward development?Teams may explore solutions such as: site documentation, geological visualization, geospatial analysis, operational planning, environmental monitoring, and decision-support tools for technical, regulatory, and investment audiences.

‍Problem Statement Two: How might we use reality capture and related technologies to de-risk and accelerate the responsible development of rare earth and mineral projects that strengthen domestic manufacturing, strategic supply chains, and national resilience?Teams may explore solutions such as: permitting and stakeholder communication tools, infrastructure and logistics planning, operational readiness models, environmental and community impact visualization, workforce and facility planning, and decision-support platforms for industry, public-sector, and defense-adjacent audiences.