{"id":115120,"date":"2020-10-29T10:09:22","date_gmt":"2020-10-29T14:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=115120"},"modified":"2021-06-22T15:33:29","modified_gmt":"2021-06-22T19:33:29","slug":"ucf-project-will-study-smart-tech-to-improve-risk-communication-in-central-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-project-will-study-smart-tech-to-improve-risk-communication-in-central-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF Project Will Study Smart Tech to Improve Risk Communication in Central Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

University of Central Florida researchers<\/a> are leading an interdisciplinary project to help communities use artificial intelligence and smart technologies<\/a> to bounce back from disasters quickly.<\/p>\n

The project is funded by a recently announced $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation as part of its Smart and Connected Communities program.<\/p>\n

The three-year project will examine past use of AI and smart technologies for emergency response and risk communication in the Central Florida region and also implement new ones. It will also analyze leveraging community partnerships that exist, such as Seminole Heart, and identify ones that could be developed.<\/p>\n

This resilience research is important since the region routinely faces threats from natural disasters such as hurricanes, flooding and tornadoes, as well as human-made emergencies and crises.<\/p>\n

The study area will cover 78 towns and cities in eight counties \u2014 Brevard, Lake, Marion, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Sumter and Volusia \u2014 with the idea that the findings could be generalized to other communities.<\/p>\n

Smart technologies, like streetlights that monitor weather and traffic flow or storm drain meters that provide real-time data about water levels, give city planners and emergency managers immediate information about a city\u2019s emergency situation and response.<\/p>\n

At the same time, this increasing amount of data is becoming more than humans can process without some AI assistance. That\u2019s why as part of the project, the researchers will develop AI that can analyze incoming emergency management data in a big influx during a disaster event, including social media and operation logistics data, and report findings back to community and organization leaders in real time.<\/p>\n

The researchers hope the work can reduce the severity of natural and human-made disasters by making emergency managers and operators from all sectors more informed and better connected and prepared.<\/p>\n