October 7, 2026
On the evening of Wednesday, 7 October 2026, an audience of approximately 30 people who attended the 1345th Ordinary General Meeting of the Royal Society of NSW heard a fascinating presentation, titled ‘iFire AI Simulation System: Reformulating the visualisation of climate disasters‘, delivered by Scientia Professor Dennis Del Favero FRSN FAHA, Professor of Digital Innovation and Executive Director, iCinema Research Centre at UNSW Sydney.
Scientia Professor Dennis Del Favero presented iFire, a UNSW-led project that uses artificial intelligence and immersive simulation to improve preparedness for extreme bushfires. Unlike conventional scientific models, which represent fire primarily through data, or artistic depictions, which convey experience, iFire combines both approaches. Its goal is to help researchers, emergency responders, and residents understand unpredictable fire behaviour and make better decisions under uncertainty.
The project builds on iCASTS, an immersive training system used at Australian and Chinese underground mine sites. That work demonstrated that people understand and remember risk more effectively through simulated experience than through warnings or manuals alone. iFire applies this insight to bushfire preparedness using shared 360-degree environments rather than individual headsets, allowing groups to rehearse emergencies collectively.
iFire is being developed in three stages. Version 1.0 reconstructed historical fires as fixed, three-dimensional scenarios. Version 2.0 lets users alter variables—including wind speed, wind direction, temperature and humidity—to generate nonlinear scenarios and observe consequences immediately. Version 3.0 aims to place physics-simulated fires in any location and generate adaptive scenarios using local terrain, vegetation and climate data.
Case studies included plantation and grassland fires in South Australia and Victoria, plus an extreme North American fire. Applications range from firefighter training in risk perception, situational awareness and decision-making to community education through mobile phones and public installations.
Professor Del Favero argued that realistic, safely graduated exposure can build resilience without placing participants in danger. By translating complex fire data into accessible, immersive experiences, iFire seeks to strengthen public understanding, professional training and life-saving responses to increasingly severe climate emergencies.
A video recording of the presentation and Q&A session is now available on the Society’s YouTube channel, while a collection of images from the occasion is now available for viewing and downloading.
