(01-August-2011) NSF Program Supports Innovation in Emergency Response

Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and the University at Buffalo (UB) have joined together in a NSF Partnership for Innovation (PFI) program (award number 0917839) dedicated to innovation in disaster management. They created the Information Products Laboratory for Emergency Response (IPLER) as a technology, policy and business development incubator to facilitate interaction and innovation among university researchers, private sector service and product providers, and public sector emergency response decision makers.

One of IPLER's major accomplishments is its emergency response role following the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Supported by additional funding from the World Bank, IPLER collaborated with several industry partners, including ImageCat, Inc. and Kucera International, to collect imagery and topography data for more 250 square miles in and around Port-au-Prince. Data from this response effort are in the public domain for response and research purposes. More than 100 terabytes of data have been downloaded by groups ranging from the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Army, U.S. Geological Survey, Google, and the United Nations, to Purdue University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.(more)http://www.nsf.gov/news/newsletter/aug_11/index.jsp