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Carnegie Mellon University Launches Disaster Management InitiativeMOFFETT FIELD, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- Carnegie Mellon University's Silicon Valley campus announced its Disaster Management Initiative (DMI), a new technology partnership and incubator that brings together key partners and individuals to collaborate on next-generation solutions for more effective management of response and recovery of disasters and emergencies among the public, emergency responders and command centers in California and beyond. In the heart of Silicon Valley at the NASA Ames Research Park at Moffett Field, Carnegie Mellon is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the research and breakthroughs in developing mobile device infrastructure, wireless sensors, context-aware/situation-aware information fusing, filtering and distribution, and fast communications as integral components of the Disaster Management Initiative. In light of recent disasters in California, Haiti, Chile, New Guinea, Cuba and Japan, and with the 104th anniversary of the San Francisco earthquake approaching on April 18, the CyLab Mobility Research Center of Carnegie Mellon is kicking off its Disaster Management Initiative by hosting a collaborative DMI Workshop and the first CrisisCampSiliconValley focused on disaster planning for the San Francisco Bay Area. An open-source technology, barcamp forum open to the public, CrisisCampSiliconValley builds on the principles of the Crisis Commons which bring together domain experts, developers and first responders to improve technology and practice for humanitarian crisis. CrisisCampSiliconValley will take place on Friday, March 26 through Sunday, March 28, 2010 at NASA Ames Research Park, Moffett Field, California. For more information and to register for CrisisCampSiliconValley, visit: http://sv.cmu.edu/dmi/crisiscamp and follow CrisisCampSiliconValley on Twitter @cmusv using hashtag #CCSV. See related advisory at http://bit.ly/au5Bc6. "Natural disasters occur worldwide killing tens of thousands of people, and in some cases hundreds of thousands of people, at a time," said Dr. Martin L. Griss, director of Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley. "Advances in technology can predict threats sooner, accelerate response times and provide new communication channels, ultimately saving lives, and many of those innovations were born in Silicon Valley. The goal of our Disaster Management Initiative and CrisisCampSiliconValley is to be a driving force behind the further development of new technologies that will encourage innovation and a renewed focus on the area of disaster management." Disaster Management Initiative Highlights Location Advantage Ensuring success of the Disaster Management Initiative, Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley is located at the NASA Ames Research Park at Moffett Field, California. This is the home to 70 start-up companies, in which Carnegie Mellon is collaborating with numerous compatible research and development projects involving disaster management. Inherent to the Moffett Field site, Carnegie Mellon is in close proximity to an airfield, fire station, first aid supply station, barracks, and the San Francisco Bay. DMI Partners and Collaborations Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley has forged relationships with 10 key regional and state agencies, as well as technology companies, engaged in national wireless communications, collaboration and disaster response, including: AEC - Airship Earth Corporation CalEMA - California Emergency Management Agency Clearwire Corporation GGSN - Golden Gate Safety Network and MapLab NASA Ames TechNet TWIKI.NET (News - Alert) Unisys WCA - Wireless Communications Alliance WCA eCLIC - Emergency Communications Leadership & Innovation Center Technology Research Expertise Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley's world-class faculty excels from their unique backgrounds pairing significant academic experience with extensive industry involvement. Senior faculty members include respected authors, speakers, professors, industry consultants, and IEEE (News - Alert) and ACM fellows. Faculty's activities explore both basic research questions and the development of novel applications to further the technology industry. Interests include: context-aware mobile systems; statistical methods; natural language translation; disaster management mobile health; security; hardware-optimization, interoperability standards, and open source platforms. DMI Workshop On Friday, March 26, a partner workshop on Disaster Response and Emergency Services will focus on defining the framework for new devices, communication and collaboration technologies and identifying projects to be explored further during CrisisCampSiliconValley. Keynote by Matthew Bettenhausen, Secretary of CalEMA (California Emergency Management Agency), and participation by Mike Dayton, Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs for California Homeland Security, will be followed by panels with many of the DMI partners, covering topics such as sensors; mobile devices; WiFi (News - Alert), 3G and 4G networking; systems integration; common operating picture; and next-generation, emergency operation centers. For more information, visit http://sv.cmu.edu/dmi/workshop. For more information on the Disaster Management Initiative, please visit http://sv.cmu.edu/dmi. For more information on CrisisCampSiliconValley, please visit: http://sv.cmu.edu/dmi/crisiscamp. Register for CrisisCampSiliconValley at http://crisiscampsiliconvalley.eventbrite.com/. For more information on Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley, please visit http://sv.cmu.edu and follow on Twitter at @cmusv or on Facebook (News - Alert) at http://www.facebook.com/carnegiemellonsiliconvalley. About Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley is dedicated to educating its students to become leaders in global technology innovation and management and to performing innovative research that connects it to local, national, and global high-tech companies. Long known for its leadership in engineering and computer science research and education, Carnegie Mellon has established a natural branch in the Silicon Valley, one that integrates the rich heritage of the Pittsburgh campus with the opportunities available in the innovative and entrepreneurial Silicon Valley. Offering graduate programs in software engineering, software management, information networking, innovation and mobility, each program provides the appropriate mix of technical, business and organizational skills critical to our students' success. With research that focuses on a suite of new technologies, Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley is committed to creating and implementing solutions for real problems. For more information on Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley, please visit http://sv.cmu.edu and follow on Twitter at @cmusv or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/carnegiemellonsiliconvalley. All brand names and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Tags: Carnegie Mellon, Disaster Management Initiative, CyLab, CrisisCampSiliconValley, CrisisCamp, Silicon Valley, Disaster Planning, Disaster Preparation, Haiti, Chili, disasters, relief, earthquake, fires, storms, WiMAX, WiFi, mobile, wireless, AEC, CalEMA, Clearwire (News - Alert), eCLIC, GGSN, MapLab, NASA, TechNet, TWIKI.NET, Unisys, WCA |
