Our mission is to catalyze social, ecological, and technology innovations with communities on the frontline of climate impacts. 

We do this by facilitating convergence research, granting seed capital for community-led innovations, and co-developing FireTech solutions.

Learn about past projects:

RESEARCH

Wildfire Preparedness and Evacuation Planning in a Pandemic’

In the first year of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Wonder Labs led NSF-funded longitudinal research, learn about partners and key findings here.

Reimagining 2025: Living with Fire Design Challenge

Between 2021–2023, our Reimagining 2025: Living with Fire Design Challenge sponsored seven student-led teams to conduct action research with communities across California, Colorado, and nation-wide. Follow our journey of reimagining the future of living and working with fire.

Reimagining the Future of Living and Working with Fire Research Articles

In 2022–2023, Wonder Labs' led curation of a Special Issue of articles, reviews, and essays for the Fire Journal, all submissions are accessible here: Reimagining the Future of Living and Working with Fire.

INCUBATIONS

BurnBot, Inc.

​In 2020, we incubated a fuel management technology–BurnBot,  a mechanized solution for safer, cleaner, and cheaper prescribed burning at scale.

The State of FireTech Survey, Report, Podcast

Since 2021, Wonder Labs has led the annual State of FireTech Surveys and Reports to inform and catalyze responsible innovation in FireTech. Also check out our Innovating on the Frontlines: The FireTech Podcast.

The FireUp Platform: Jobs, Community, & Well-being

FireUp is America's first workforce platform exclusively dedicated to sustaining careers and well-being for diverse fire and forestry professionals.

Publications

Meet the Founders

  • Shefali J Lakhina, PhD

    Shefali has over 20 years of international experience and thought leadership on disaster policy, practice, and research. Since 2004, she has worked to strengthen disaster resilience across South Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, South-East Europe, Australia, and the United States. Shefali has led innovations in disaster resilience policy and programs for international humanitarian and development agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations, national authorities, local councils, and civil society organizations. In 2018, Shefali’s doctoral research in Australia received a high commendation from the New South Wales Office of Emergency Services. In 2020, she cofounded Wonder Labs to address the wildfire crisis through convergence research, policy advocacy, and technology investments. In 2024, she founded FireUp, America’s first career and well-being platform exclusively dedicated to the needs of fire and forestry professionals.


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  • Anukool Lakhina, PhD

    ​In 2006, Anukool commercialized his NSF-funded doctoral research on big data streaming analytics to build Guavus, a Silicon Valley company that pioneered real-time analysis of streaming data for Fortune 500 companies. He led Guavus to industry-wide recognition. In 2013, Guavus received the Leading Lights 'Company of the Year' award. Guavus was acquired by the Thales Group in 2017. At Thales, Anukool built big data analytics solutions across a variety of sensor systems in aerospace, defense, transportation, and digital security. Anukool has more than two decades of thought leadership in large-scale data analytics and has widely published on the subject. In 2015, he received Boston University's Computer Science Distinguished Alumni award. Since 2021, Anukool has been CEO of BurnBot Inc., scaling fuels treatments to prevent destructive wildfires.


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