NASA, Carnegie Mellon To Showcase Disaster Management Technologies

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – News media are invited to attend a demonstration of disaster management technologies on Sunday, Nov. 4, 2012 from 1 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. PST through Monday, Nov. 5, 2012 from 8:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. PST at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.

In collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley (CMUSV), Ames will host a workshop highlighting community resilience and testing technologies in preparation, response and recovery from emergencies.

For the past three years, Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley has led an initiative to develop next generation technology for disaster management by bringing together corporate partners with key community, public safety and emergency response leaders.

A key component of the 2012 workshop will be evaluating Survivable Social Networks, a system to provide flexible and powerful social media tools. Survivable Social Networks are accessible via smartphones, without dependence on public telecommunications or Internet infrastructures, and are a key part of a larger Silicon Valley Resilient Network project.

Bob Iannucci, director, CyLab Mobility Center at Moffett Field, Calif., will conduct a community/agency interoperability event with the CMUSV student Survivable Social Networks project team. The team will test how to communicate data between communities, agencies and local government through robust social networking tools, even when power and Internet infrastructures are compromised. Data such as photos, status updates and geo-located data will be exchanged using resilient Web servers, databases and stand-alone PBX telephone networks.

The workshop also will feature speakers from Motorola, FEMA, Mountain View police and fire, the Palo Alto Office of Emergency Services and other industry and community partners, who will join CMUSV professors, researchers and students in presentations, workshops, demos and experiments.

Media wishing to attend this event must contact Karen Jenvey by email at karen.jenvey@nasa.gov or 650-604-4789 by noon PST Friday, Nov. 2, 2012, as space is limited.