Path and Focus

015. Season one wrap up!

Jonathan Bowers, Kaileen McCulloch — Sat, 30 Oct 2021 11:38:58 -0700

Kaileen and Jonathan reflect on that past 10+ months of this Path and Focus journey in the last episode of season one! Join us as we explore some of the struggles and successes that have come out of this venture into wildfire technology.

014. Guest interview with Bruce Morrow, Registered Professional Forester

Jonathan Bowers, Kaileen McCulloch — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 09:54:53 -0700

Jonathan sits down for a candid conversation with Bruce Morrow, a professional forester with 40 years of experience in wildfire suppression and fuel management. They talk about everything from the 15 year pine beetle epidemic in BC, to how fire suppression can actually make for even worse fire seasons. Bruce also gives real time feedback on the Beacon app.

013. Guest interview with Avvai Ketheeswaran, fellow Beacon developer!

Jonathan Bowers, Kaileen McCulloch — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 15:10:00 -0700

Another very special guest is joining Jonathan on the podcast today, and this time it's Avvai, one of the wonderful developers who's helped bring Beacon to life! Avvai shares how much she's learned about wildfire, software development and product design, and what features she hopes to see implemented in Beacon in the future.

012. The perils of wildfire risk on home insurance

Jonathan Bowers, Kaileen McCulloch — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 16:50:01 -0700

Kaileen bought a tiny home! And is now experiencing herself what so many other home buyers in BC have this summer... being unable to purchase house insurance because of (perceived) risk of wildfire. We revisit how this was one of the initial motivations for starting our wildfire technology startup company, and then continue brainstorming ideas on how to get more Beacon users and more feedback from those users.

011. Air quality conversions & Beacon premium features

Jonathan Bowers, Kaileen McCulloch — Mon, 30 Aug 2021 09:00:14 -0700

Jonathan shares a project he worked on over the weekend that involved converting the Canadian Air Quality Health Index & the Air Quality Index that Purple Air sensors use in order to find a more accurate reading that adequately accounts for woodsmoke. Then, he and Kaileen explore different ways to start gauging interest in Beacon's premium features!

010. Minor app bugs & biogeoclimatic zones

Jonathan Bowers, Kaileen McCulloch — Fri, 20 Aug 2021 13:19:09 -0700

Kaileen and Jonathan explore some fire danger rating edge case bugs that were accidentally stumbled upon, and how using something called biogeoclimatic zones could change the game for getting more accurate work restrictions!

009. Machine Learning with Chris Foster, our CTO!

Jonathan Bowers, Kaileen McCulloch — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 10:01:59 -0700

We've got Chris Foster, Two Story Robot's own Chief Technology Officer and resident machine learning expert in the studio to set some things straight. Why can't we just slap a little machine learning on everything? What is the potential for it in the wildfire management space?? And the question we're all curious to know... is ML coming for our jobs??? (spoiler alert: it's not!)

008. Initial feedback & product validation

Jonathan Bowers, Kaileen McCulloch — Fri, 06 Aug 2021 15:01:46 -0700

Jonathan shares some early feedback we've received on Beacon, then he and Kaileen dive into the last few question marks they have yet to figure out before officially launching, and how they even validated this app months back.

007. Navigating wildfire lingo & ableist language

Jonathan Bowers, Kaileen McCulloch — Fri, 30 Jul 2021 10:45:16 -0700

[00:01:01] We start off with an update on our machine learning conversation
[00:03:47] Pivoting to a manual solution (for now)
[00:05:27] What is ableist language?
[00:06:40] Discussing how we use "wild" in everyday conversation
[00:08:26] The importance of clear, deliberate communication
[00:10:14] Confusing wildfire terminology
[00:13:09] What are the different fire ranks?
[00:14:07] What is fire candling and fire spotting?
[00:14:57] Jonathan gets excited about the term "organized fire"
[00:16:58] BCWS admits they use confusing terms!
[00:17:27] Comparing past wildfire terminology to today's
[00:18:36] Outro

006. Getting weather data is tricky

Jonathan Bowers, Kaileen McCulloch — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 06:30:00 -0700

Today, we start off by clarifying what the relationship is between the two companies, Path and Focus & Two Story Robot, then we get right into the heart of today's episode: our struggles with getting consistent, up to date weather data. Where should we pull the data from? How do we account for days where the data is not available?? Is machine learning the answer???

005. Guest interview with Leum Elvins, BC wildland firefighter

Jonathan Bowers, Kaileen McCulloch — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 13:28:04 -0700

[00:00:24] World, meet Leum Elvins
[00:01:57] Leum describes how rapattack personnel are deployed onto a fire
[00:04:21] So, what do the helicopters do after they drop the firefighters off?
[00:05:54] We learn about all the other gear the crews are dropped off with at the top of the mountain
[00:07:32] Once they're deployed and dropped off... then what?
[00:10:42] Why are rappel firefighters even a thing?
[00:12:18] Leum teaches us about burn operations
[00:13:33] We talk about how the red book is used, by whom and why?
[00:14:26] If/when a firefighter references the red book, what will it tell them
[00:15:59] What are some drawbacks to the way the red book works?
[00:16:13] Ever wondered how you calculate the way a fire will burn up a slope?
[00:17:55] Leum shares what value he sees in digitizing the red book
[00:19:08] We get an example of how the red book doesn't always get it right
[00:19:51] Goodbyes

004. The what, why, and how of fire indices

Jonathan Bowers, Kaileen McCulloch — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 06:03:20 -0700

Today we're diving right into the crux of our Beacon app- the fire weather index! Kaileen and Jonathan give an update on the status of the app, explain how the fire indices are used, and explore the different ways those indices might be integrated into Beacon in order to help industry folx navigate whether it's safe to work our in the field or not.

003. Why can danger ratings be so complicated?

Jonathan Bowers, Kaileen McCulloch — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 12:00:52 -0700

[00:00:48] Kaileen informs us what the term "greenup" means with regards to weather and fire
[00:01:36] Let's get into what we're building: an app for people who work out in the bush
[00:02:45] What circumstances might get someone on the hook for starting a wildfire?
[00:04:07] Jonathan gives us the run down on how industry workers currently figure out whether it's safe to work or not

002. Branding

Jonathan Bowers, Kaileen McCulloch — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 11:02:46 -0700

[00:01:00] Jonathan shares the original intention and meaning behind the name Path and Focus
[00:01:31] We then get into how the name translates really well into our new goal for for the company
[00:03:10] Kaileen describes the logo with special attention to detail
[00:04:02] J chimes in with his own imaginative description
[00:04:22] We talk about scaling the logo down for favicon usage
[00:04:47] Benefits of having a black and white version of the logo
[00:05:31] K & J discuss their differing opinions of logo colour preferences
[00:07:05] J gets excited about prospect of drawing logo with code
[00:07:24] Next steps in branding journey
[00:08:10] Pondering plans for building the Path and Focus website
[00:09:03] Plans for blog posts, and a quick gut check on whether we're doing this whole thing backwards
[00:09:44] Outro

001. What is Path and Focus?

Jonathan Bowers, Kaileen McCulloch — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 09:38:25 -0700

[00:00:10] What is path and Focus?
[00:01:25] What is the goal of this podcast?
[00:01:47] Jonathan & Kaileen talk about who might be most interested in the products we intend to build
[00:02:43] Kaileen shares what she looks for in a podcast and hopes to bring to this one
[00:04:40] Jonathan ponders what exactly Path and Focus for is striving for as a company
[00:06:24] We describe what kind of products might come out of P&F
[00:07:25] J goes into more detail on some specific apps in the works and on the horizon
[00:08:21] We learn more about who Kaileen is as she shares her background specifically relating to firefighting
[00:10:00] Jonathan shares his background rich in software development
[00:11:00] Outro

Path and Focus: Teaser

Jonathan Bowers, Kaileen McCulloch — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 07:47:08 -0700

Hosts Jonathan and Kaileen reminisce on the fateful event at which they met four years ago, the projects they've worked on together since then, and how all of those experiences wove together to bring them to this new venture: building wildfire technology.