Martin Veit and Elijah Igweh, both PhD students at FRISSBE, recently attended the 2026 NFPA Conference and Expo in Las Vegas, one of the most significant annual gatherings in the global fire safety community. With over 420 exhibitors and three full days of educational sessions, the conference brings together researchers, practitioners, engineers, and industry representatives from across the world to exchange knowledge and explore the latest developments in fire safety science and practice. 

Among the highlights of the programme were a presentation by NFPA President Jim Pauley on the history of the National Fire Protection Association and a keynote address by Dan Chuparkoff on the role of AI-driven innovation in shaping the future of fire safety. Both sessions offered timely perspectives on where the profession is heading and the technological forces driving change across the sector. 

Elijah Igweh was invited by the International Master of Science in Fire Safety Engineering (IMFSE) to present his master's thesis work, entitled "Temperature and Heat Flux Measurements from Firebrand Piles using Color Ratio Pyrometry", as part of the conference's Student Poster session on Monday afternoon and the Student Presentation session on Tuesday morning. The research, carried out under the supervision of Professor Stanislav Stoliarov and Professor Peter Sunderland at the University of Maryland, and Professor Bart Merci at Ghent University, addresses one of the more challenging aspects of wildland and urban interface fire research: accurately measuring temperature and heat flux from accumulations of firebrands using non-contact optical methods. 

Martin Veit presented his research on non-intrusive measurement techniques, with his presentation named “Advancing fire science through enhanced experimental flow field measurements in compartment fires”, with a poster on the same topic. This work was conducted in collaboration with Forschungszentrum Jülich, together with Dr. Alex Belt and Dr. Lukas Arnold, and is based on Martins research visit at the institution in 2025.  

Beyond the scientific programme, both Martin and Elijah were invited to the University of Maryland Alumni Club Annual Dinner 2026, and also attended a cocktail event hosted by Brooke Fishback of Protectowire, offering valuable opportunities to connect with fire safety professionals from academia and industry. 

FRISSBE would like to extend its thanks to Birgitte Messerschmidt and Sreenivasan Ranganathan for their support of student participation at the NFPA conference. Opportunities such as this are invaluable for early-career researchers, providing exposure to the breadth of the fire safety community and the chance to share their work with a global audience.