I am a student at Worthington Kilbourne High School and I am in an engineering class and my group is looking into potential problems with current smoke detector design. Part of our research is a survey component so we would like to know:

Would you test your smoke alarms more often if they could be tested remotely?

I assume you are talking about domestic smoke detectors and testing them is not the problem all you need is a long bamboo cane, its remembering to test them. Testing them remotely would only add to the cost which in my opinion would not be a good thing.

Your "project" should also take into consideration how will your idea work with existing smoke alarms, bearing in mind that you can buy a brand new smoke alarm from safelincs just over a fiver

As Tom said,

its remembering to test them

But folk who buy smoke alarms from safelincs can also sign up to the free reminder service.