M&R Environmental Solutions: From Afghanistan to AI-Powered Drone Threat Detection
August 20, 2024 | Dawn Zoldi
When it comes to environmental protection and defense technology, one company stands out for its unique journey from the battlefields of Afghanistan to the cutting edge of artificial intelligence (AI) and drone applications: M&R Environmental Solutions. Led by CEO Alex Momand, this company aims to pioneer innovative approaches to tackle some of the most challenging environmental and security issues facing those who protect and defend us.
Battlefield-Informed AI
Momand, an Afghan-American entrepreneur, began his career with local environmental work in the San Francisco Bay Area. During the U.S. war in Afghanistan, he transferred his focus to solving some of the most pressing environmental issues that directly impacted the people there. Momand created M&R Environmental Solutions to deploy real solutions to the front line.
Image: Alex Momand meets with CENTCOM Command U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Mike Murray, Deputy Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan Support on closure of burn pits through waste recycling over 2500 cubic meters per day from Bagram Airbase, Kandahar Airbase, TB Shorab and HQRS
Notably, Momand tackled one of the most pressing issues that posed severe health risks to both military personnel and civilians: the widespread use of open-air waste disposal sites, or “burn pits.” He collaborated with US military leadership to implement a groundbreaking local recycling program that effectively eliminated the need for these toxic pits. This involved investing over $12 million in critical infrastructure.
Momand’s work in Afghanistan provided invaluable insights into deploying technology in challenging environments. This experience laid the foundation for M&R’s approach to problem-solving in general, and has directly informed its current focus on developing AI-powered solutions for environmental monitoring and threat detection.
The company now stands at the forefront of integrating drone technology with AI and machine learning (ML). The company’s innovative approach combines drones equipped with advanced sensors, real-time data processing, AI-powered analysis and physics-informed neural networks (PINNs).
Full-Spectrum Threat Detection With Drones & PINNs
One of the critical challenges in deploying AI systems for defense and security applications is ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the data and insights provided. Unlike some generative AI models that may produce hallucinations or irrelevant information, M&R focuses on developing AI that delivers clean, accurate data tailored to specific use cases. That’s where real-time data collection with drone technology and PINNs come into play.
Image: M&R’s team takes a break from testing drones equipped with advanced sensors, real-time data processing, AI-powered analysis and physics-informed neural networks (PINNs).
PINNs, advanced AI models incorporate fundamental physical laws and principles into their learning process, allow for more accurate and reliable predictions in complex environments. Momand elaborated, “With PINNs, physics is able to be played out in real time through the AI. PINNs enable providing critical information either through sensor fusion or data mesh.” He continued, “When we’re talking about potential explosives or chemical attacks, there’s a lot going on in the environment in real time.”
By utilizing advanced sensors, real-time data processing and AI-powered analysis, M&R’s system can detect and track hazardous plumes (think: pollutants, chemicals, biological and radiological agents, as well as high-yield explosives) within minutes, model their dispersion and provide actionable intelligence to homeland security and battlefield decision-makers to help predict – and ultimately mitigate – their spread.
Momand explained the power of this approach. “We’re pursuing onsite rapid situational awareness for when time matters,” he said. “For example, to detect where a hazardous plume may be headed, our system will fuse all of the data collected by a drone and stationary sensors and then leverage PINNS for rapid dispersion modeling.”
While M&R’s technology has clear applications in military and homeland security contexts, the company continues to explore its potential in other areas of environmental protection and emergency response. Among these, Momand highlighted firefighting and wildfire management, pollution monitoring for Native American tribes, oil spill detection and tracking in challenging environments like the Arctic and mapping fuel sources to prevent large-scale fires.
This versatility demonstrates the adaptability of M&R’s AI-driven approach to address a wide range of environmental and safety challenges. By leveraging its expertise in plume modeling and real-time data analysis, M&R hopes to position itself to make significant contributions across multiple sectors.
A World-Class Team of Teams
The development of such advanced technology requires a team of exceptional talent, the best hardware and software. On the personnel front, Momand has focused on recruiting top-tier data scientists and experts from around the world.
“I was able to recruit, worldwide, in my opinion, some of the top data scientists, the majority of them, which are American, and they are just phenomenal and extremely intelligent,” Momand explained. He continued, “I bring the knowledge of what happens outside the wire in an active war zone to these highly intelligent and capable scientists and then they go to the drawing board to build the platform. “It’s been incredible to watch how this has come together in such a short time.”
In addition to top-tier people, Momand also recognized that the success of the company’s AI-driven solutions would depend heavily on the quality and reliability of the hardware components used. Specifically, the company continues to partner with other companies that provide the most robust, weather-resistant sensors and equipment that can function in challenging environments.
Momand pointed to Boulder, Colorado-based Black Swift Technologies (BST) a specialized engineering firm best known for developing drones designed for beyond-visual-line-of-sight flights in extreme environments, as one example of the type of hardware partners the company seeks. BST’s drones have flown on all seven continents, including the Arctic, in hazardous areas such as on the side of volcanoes, over wildland fires and into hurricanes.
In short, M&R’s approach involves not just curating the top team to develop advanced AI algorithms, but also ensuring that the entire system – from sensors to data processing – can operate effectively in real-world scenarios.
Demos & Collaborations
M&R Environmental Solutions now gears up for a series of demonstrations to showcase their technology in action before the end of the year. These demonstrations will focus on atmospheric plume dispersion modeling and other specific use cases requested by potential clients.
Image: Meeting with Afghan National Security Force (ANSF) Deputy Command of MoD and USFOR-A Garrison Command Environmental Chief Victor Lyke.
“We’re going to be doing some demos here soon with both fire departments and also with the Department of Defense,” Momand explained. “We’re looking at a demo before the end of the year, where we’re going to be testing our atmospheric plume dispersion modeling and some other use cases that they’ve us to showcase.”
These demonstrations represent a crucial step in proving the effectiveness and real-world applicability of M&R’s technology. By working directly with potential end-users, the company plans to refine its solutions to meet the specific needs of different sectors.
Beyond end-users, Momand hopes to expand M&R’s connections more broadly within the AI and drone technology sectors by staying connected with other innovators and potential partners. “I look forward to meeting a lot of the great minds that are out there,” he said. “There’s a lot of companies doing phenomenal work. I’m excited to see what’s out there and to collaborate.”
For those interested in learning more about M&R Environmental Solutions or connecting with Alex Momand on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-momand/.
