Fort Collins, CO, Aug. 11, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As much of the Mountain West persists in a state of severe drought, the National Science Foundation ASCEND Engine in Colorado and Wyoming is taking steps to address environmental intelligence and resilience with three new projects focused on advancing innovation in extreme weather prediction.
This third round of research and translation projects builds on work initiated during the first two years of the NSF ASCEND Engine program. The competitive RFP process called on interdisciplinary, collaborative teams from across the region’s leading universities, startup companies and technology innovators to propose decision-support solutions that help communities prepare for and respond to natural hazards.
The projects selected for funding include:
- Airborne Intelligent Robotic System for Environmental Sensing (AIR-SENSE) – University of Colorado Boulder/Disaster Imaging Inc (PI Eric Frew): Focused on autonomous, fixed wing navigation to drive precision data collection during extreme weather events.
- AI-Enhanced Hail Forecasting & Ground Validation for Colorado-Wyoming Infrastructure Resilience – Colorado State University/Vaisala (PIs Kristen Rasmussen and Chandra Venkatachalam): Advancing deep-learning-based hail prediction to support affordability and infrastructure resilience, leveraging a pilot the NSF ASCEND Engine funded with in collaboration with NVIDIA utilizing radar-based assets.
- Rocky Mountain Weather & Wildfire Intelligence Center (RMWWIC): Smoke & Wind Intelligence for CO–WY Mountain Communities – OnPeak Weather/University of Wyoming (PI Tyler McCandless): Leveraging the ASCEND-funded RM1.3 dataset radically improve spatial resolution of smoke models in complex terrain, with market applications including outdoor recreation and tourism, the health sector, and the insurance industry
“A commonality across projects within our third seedling round is that each team is helping to enable precision interventions that can save lives and protect assets from loss,” said Sam Mallory, director of R&D for the NSF ASCEND Engine. “These teams are asking ambitious questions: How can those with respiratory conditions confidently make decisions during heavy wildfire smoke days? Can we help critical infrastructure operators make decisions about moving equipment in advance of extreme hail events?”
These three awards mark the latest expansion of the NSF ASCEND Engine's growing portfolio of drought, wildfire and extreme weather resilience work, and build on the foundation established through the Engine's flagship ARID and SHIELD programs:
- ARID (Asset Resilience through Intelligent Digital Twins): partners with power and water utilities to strengthen infrastructure resilience against wildfire
- SHIELD (Soil Health Innovation, Evaluation, and Demonstration): equips agricultural producers and land managers with scalable soil health monitoring solutions to enhance drought resilience
The teams will join the ASCEND Engine's broader network of researchers, startups and industry partners at the Mountain West AI & HPC Summit, hosted by the University of Wyoming, NVIDIA and the NSF ASCEND Engine, Aug. 31-Sept. 2, 2026, in Laramie, Wyoming. The Summit will feature keynote presentations, hands-on training with NVIDIA experts, and technical sessions that will include a thematic focus on weather prediction. For more information and to register, visit the Mountain West AI & HPC Summit site.
About the NSF ASCEND Engine:
The NSF ASCEND Engine — Advanced Sensing and Computation for Environmental Decision Making — is a U.S. National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engine led by Innosphere. Based along the I-25 Innovation Corridor, the ASCEND Engine connects Colorado and Wyoming’s federal laboratories, R1 universities, and technology companies to develop scalable solutions for wildfire, drought, extreme weather, and environmental resilience. Every NSF ASCEND Engine program is built with commercialization as a design requirement — moving scientific advances efficiently from discovery to deployment through three technical layers: advanced sensing and data generation, computational analytics, and decision support tools that translate research into commercial products and public services.
Projected 10-year impact: $3B in regional GDP and 18,000 new jobs by 2034.* innosphere.org/nsf-engine
*Projections provided by Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation
About Innosphere:
Innosphere is the Colorado-based nonprofit venture development organization — built for entrepreneurs turning discovery into companies. We bring acceleration, capital, infrastructure, and partners together to advance the region and enhance national competitiveness. Innosphere offers sector-specific accelerators, advances capital access, leads the NSF ASCEND Engine, and convenes the Colorado Innovation Council across four R&D-intensive industry sectors. Cumulative impact since 2013: 400+ companies served, 2,000+ jobs created, $3.6B in capital raised and $300M+ in revenue by client companies. innosphere.org
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Kristen Tatti Innosphere 970-295-4481 kristen@innosphere.org
