(BLOOMINGTON) – Indiana University has created a lab to help first responders use emerging technologies on the front lines of disasters and emergency response. Known as the Crisis Technologies Innovation Lab, the lab is a collaboration between IU’s Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering and Pervasive Technology Institute.
Using data science and engineering, the lab will deliver practical resources and solutions to first responders, and research ways technology can help people prepare for, respond to and recover from hurricanes, wildfires, floods and other disasters.
For example, the lab is developing innovative visual displays that accept multiple data streams during an incident. Those streams are combined and prioritized using artificial intelligence and machine learning to help emergency managers make more timely and accurate decisions. These displays could be large, such as a video wall in an emergency operations center, or small and mobile, like on a tablet.
The Crisis Technologies Innovation Lab has already conducted substantial preliminary research. The lab was recently awarded more than $650,000 in federal grant money to build tools and develop methods for analysis that will help build communities that are more disaster-resilient through the use of historical disaster data.
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