RescueSight: Student Founders Aid Disaster Relief with Visionary Tech
With its revolutionary platform that equips first responders with comprehensive real-time insights during disaster scenarios, it’s no wonder that RescueSight was voted the “Most Innovative Technology” at Collider Cup XV.
Co-founders and best friends Alper Gel (‘26 Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences / Bioengineering) and Charlie McDonald (‘26 Applied Math / Computer Science) have been innovating together since their freshman year at UC Berkeley. Now, after piloting RescueSight with a network of users and investors — including through SCET’s Disaster Lab course — they’re eager for their lifesaving technology to expand to new levels.
What inspired you to aid with natural disaster relief?
Alper: My family is originally from Turkey, and there were some really bad earthquakes in February of 2023 in Southern Turkey. Everything was leveled and the first responders deployed on-site didn’t even know where to begin.
At the time, I had worked in the computer vision industry for about five years. I took donated satellite images from providers like NASA and Planet Labs, converted it to actionable insights, and later found out that those helped to save more than 150 lives.
It dawned on Alper that if something he’d thrown together in 48 hours as a college freshman had such a massive impact, then disaster relief personnel programs must be in desperate need of improved tech support.
Charlie: I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, right inside of Tornado Alley. I’ve seen the organizational side of things. When large-scale disasters hit a community, and they need to pull surrounding resources, there’s a big problem on interoperability and standardization — communicating what’s done, what needs to be done, and what team is responsible for what jobs.
There’s a joke inside emergency management offices — “Emergency response is a hundred years of tradition, unimpeded by progress.” People can’t access the drone footage that they took to scan a site unless a member of the drone team is in the office that day. 90% of responders have said these communication barriers are a critical concern for effective disaster response.
What does RescueSight do differently?
Alper: I started working in the startup world freshman year of high school, from pre-seed to series C level. They were all computer vision startups, but sports AI, retail AI, health AI… None of them were what we’re working on now.
In the emergency response space, they had satellite images lying around and people just weren’t using them. People were flying drones and weren’t able to analyze the footage. I just thought, “This is not right.”
What we’re doing isn’t just satellite or drone [imagery]. Our point is to be a data management and contextualization hub of satellite, drone, phone video, blueprints, reports, etc from first responders. We’re trying to solve the multimodal inbound and outbound problem that they all have.
Charlie: A foundational level is making sure all the data is there in the same spot, and that people know where and how they can access it. But when disaster strikes, a battalion chief might only have 30 seconds to make an action call. Having that data on hand [ensures] that they’re making an informed call . We’re generating insights by putting data together — the drone footage of a site, and the blueprint of the building, and the structural analysis that a fuel engineer did — into a few concise bullet points that are there when the decision-maker needs them.
How has being a UC Berkeley student team added to RescueSight’s development?
Charlie: We attribute so much of our initial traction to being students. At the beginning of our ideation phase, we approached the UC Berkeley Disaster Lab. Their mission is having innovation meet industry, and having startups meet with their end users directly. Especially in B2G, it’s really tough for other startups to have that network and to have a sounding board for ideas.
Moving from there, when we reach out to new agencies, leading with a student persona has made having connections and hearing about the problems people face so much more genuine.
Alper: It really sets us apart from other B2G companies. Firefighters and first responders are excited to develop this with us — to have an early role, to shape and fine-tune the features as we roll out to general availability. We’ve tapped into an exciting niche of being able to co-design with our end users and get those introductions as early as possible.
How do you balance being a student and a startup founder?
Alper: It’s tough. It has its ups and downs, but it’s very worth it. When the earthquakes happened, I was thinking, “This has to be better. There has to be someone doing this.” There wasn’t, and it really started bothering me. I kept questioning, “What if I try? No, it’s too much.” Then I pitched it to Charlie, and he immediately was like, “Let’s do it.” I knew that together we would be able to do it. I would advise people to definitely find their person.
Charlie: It’s always been a passion project for Alper and I. Seeing these milestones that we set, reaching them, and hearing the success stories from first responders themselves — that’s what keeps us going day in and day out.
What are you currently working on?
Charlie: Our current phase is design partnerships. We’re looking at users who face this pain point in its worst form — typically mid- to large-sized agencies with lots of teams and subdivisions. We’re focusing on them getting their hands on the end product [and providing feedback]. A core component of our platform is that, based on satellite and drone imagery, we’re able to ‘digital twin’ a region, or create a full 3D interactive environment that can be viewed on a laptop or tablet. That’s something that has gotten end users excited.
In terms of actual use cases, the RescueSight platform has been deployed for infrastructure inspection, preplanning evacuation routes, visualizing contingency plans and data that they already have. Small-scale pilots for now, but we’re targeting a full rollout next year for any agency who wants to be a part of the platform.
Where do you hope RescueSight goes next?
Charlie: One thing we struggled with in the early stages was that this data management problem happens across all the sectors of emergencies: fire response, oil spill, Department of Fish and Wildlife, the list goes on. All these agencies had similar problems, so figuring out where to prioritize was a real struggle.
We reduced our scope for initial pilot programs, but since we’re solving a “data in, data out” problem, we can now deploy our solutions without changing the code on our back end. Here in California, a lot of these agencies are so tech-forward and have the resources and infrastructure to really have the platform shine. Once we’re ready next year, we’re hoping to expand across the U.S. We have partnerships with wholesale drone manufacturers to reduce the barrier to entry for teams who may be interested in increasing their situational awareness but don’t know where to start. And to take it back to where it all started, we’d love to help first responders in Turkey and bring our work full circle.
With its revolutionary platform that equips first responders with comprehensive real-time insights during disaster scenarios, it’s no wonder that RescueSight was voted the “Most Innovative Technology” at Collider Cup XV.
Co-founders and best friends Alper Gel (‘26 Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences / Bioengineering) and Charlie McDonald (‘26 Applied Math / Computer Science) have been innovating together since their freshman year at UC Berkeley. Now, after piloting RescueSight with a network of users and investors — including through SCET’s Disaster Lab course — they’re eager for their lifesaving technology to expand to new levels.
What inspired you to aid with natural disaster relief?
Alper: My family is originally from Turkey, and there were some really bad earthquakes in February of 2023 in Southern Turkey. Everything was leveled and the first responders deployed on-site didn’t even know where to begin.
At the time, I had worked in the computer vision industry for about five years. I took donated satellite images from providers like NASA and Planet Labs, converted it to actionable insights, and later found out that those helped to save more than 150 lives.
It dawned on Alper that if something he’d thrown together in 48 hours as a college freshman had such a massive impact, then disaster relief personnel programs must be in desperate need of improved tech support.
Charlie: I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, right inside of Tornado Alley. I’ve seen the organizational side of things. When large-scale disasters hit a community, and they need to pull surrounding resources, there’s a big problem on interoperability and standardization — communicating what’s done, what needs to be done, and what team is responsible for what jobs.
There’s a joke inside emergency management offices — “Emergency response is a hundred years of tradition, unimpeded by progress.” People can’t access the drone footage that they took to scan a site unless a member of the drone team is in the office that day. 90% of responders have said these communication barriers are a critical concern for effective disaster response.
What does RescueSight do differently?
Alper: I started working in the startup world freshman year of high school, from pre-seed to series C level. They were all computer vision startups, but sports AI, retail AI, health AI… None of them were what we’re working on now.
In the emergency response space, they had satellite images lying around and people just weren’t using them. People were flying drones and weren’t able to analyze the footage. I just thought, “This is not right.”
What we’re doing isn’t just satellite or drone [imagery]. Our point is to be a data management and contextualization hub of satellite, drone, phone video, blueprints, reports, etc from first responders. We’re trying to solve the multimodal inbound and outbound problem that they all have.
Charlie: A foundational level is making sure all the data is there in the same spot, and that people know where and how they can access it. But when disaster strikes, a battalion chief might only have 30 seconds to make an action call. Having that data on hand [ensures] that they’re making an informed call . We’re generating insights by putting data together — the drone footage of a site, and the blueprint of the building, and the structural analysis that a fuel engineer did — into a few concise bullet points that are there when the decision-maker needs them.
How has being a UC Berkeley student team added to RescueSight’s development?
Charlie: We attribute so much of our initial traction to being students. At the beginning of our ideation phase, we approached the UC Berkeley Disaster Lab. Their mission is having innovation meet industry, and having startups meet with their end users directly. Especially in B2G, it’s really tough for other startups to have that network and to have a sounding board for ideas.
Moving from there, when we reach out to new agencies, leading with a student persona has made having connections and hearing about the problems people face so much more genuine.
Alper: It really sets us apart from other B2G companies. Firefighters and first responders are excited to develop this with us — to have an early role, to shape and fine-tune the features as we roll out to general availability. We’ve tapped into an exciting niche of being able to co-design with our end users and get those introductions as early as possible.
How do you balance being a student and a startup founder?
Alper: It’s tough. It has its ups and downs, but it’s very worth it. When the earthquakes happened, I was thinking, “This has to be better. There has to be someone doing this.” There wasn’t, and it really started bothering me. I kept questioning, “What if I try? No, it’s too much.” Then I pitched it to Charlie, and he immediately was like, “Let’s do it.” I knew that together we would be able to do it. I would advise people to definitely find their person.
Charlie: It’s always been a passion project for Alper and I. Seeing these milestones that we set, reaching them, and hearing the success stories from first responders themselves — that’s what keeps us going day in and day out.
What are you currently working on?
Charlie: Our current phase is design partnerships. We’re looking at users who face this pain point in its worst form — typically mid- to large-sized agencies with lots of teams and subdivisions. We’re focusing on them getting their hands on the end product [and providing feedback]. A core component of our platform is that, based on satellite and drone imagery, we’re able to ‘digital twin’ a region, or create a full 3D interactive environment that can be viewed on a laptop or tablet. That’s something that has gotten end users excited.
In terms of actual use cases, the RescueSight platform has been deployed for infrastructure inspection, preplanning evacuation routes, visualizing contingency plans and data that they already have. Small-scale pilots for now, but we’re targeting a full rollout next year for any agency who wants to be a part of the platform.
Where do you hope RescueSight goes next?
Charlie: One thing we struggled with in the early stages was that this data management problem happens across all the sectors of emergencies: fire response, oil spill, Department of Fish and Wildlife, the list goes on. All these agencies had similar problems, so figuring out where to prioritize was a real struggle.
We reduced our scope for initial pilot programs, but since we’re solving a “data in, data out” problem, we can now deploy our solutions without changing the code on our back end. Here in California, a lot of these agencies are so tech-forward and have the resources and infrastructure to really have the platform shine. Once we’re ready next year, we’re hoping to expand across the U.S. We have partnerships with wholesale drone manufacturers to reduce the barrier to entry for teams who may be interested in increasing their situational awareness but don’t know where to start. And to take it back to where it all started, we’d love to help first responders in Turkey and bring our work full circle.