The Center for Network-Centric Cognition and Information Fusion (NC2IF) in the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) has received a $205,000 grant from the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program to create an Extreme Events Laboratory in the IST Building at University Park.
The lab will serve as a command center for data-collection operations that will take place throughout campus. These exercises will simulate decision making and communications that take place during natural disasters and other extreme events, with the goal of streamlining those processes.
The center and the laboratory seek to fuse data collection from hard sensors – computers, radar and other equipment – with observations collected by people and shared through outlets such as YouTube and cell phone text messaging.
"This facility will enable experiments to be conducted with people as observers and users of information in crisis situations," said David Hall, an IST professor and director of NC2IF. "The grant gives us the funding needed to purchase equipment and get the lab up and running."
The research conducted in the Extreme Events Laboratory will help the Department of Defense in areas including decision making, intelligence analysis and coordinating communications during catastrophic events.