Computer Scientists Advance Secure Emergency Response Systems

NSF-funded researchers have developed a groundbreaking new framework for integrating data from multiple sources and responding to highly dynamic real-world scenarios, including those arising in homeland security or emergency situations.

This research plays a vital role in development of an emergency data system and models that provide real-time information to emergency workers and planners.

Part of a collaboration between researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, systems developed will effectively pair patients with hospital beds, ambulances with patients and police with emergency situations by combining databases and real-time information from multiple sources.

Focusing on very fluid situations, the model must consider multiple issues, including:

• movement of people and vehicles in an area;
• availability and usage of resources including hospitals, care providers, roads and databases;
• temporary formation of collaborative groups, including emergency workers; and
  
• mixed levels of data sharing and resources between planners and emergency workers

Uniting local, state and federal data, the system will provide a way for multiple users to more efficiently search across multiple platforms and information sources.