This TechTalk aims to introduce computer scientists to emergency management and how their research might apply to disaster prevention, preparedness, response and recovery. Participants will take away an understanding of the different phases of a disaster; how decision-making is organized in a disaster; the current state of the practice of informatics, the rising data overload from mobile devices, UAVs, and social networks; and the opportunities for computing. Hurricane Harvey will be used as the primary motivating example but lessons learned from over 29 disasters, starting with the 2001 9/11 World Trade Center collapse, will be included.
Robin Murphy
Robin R. Murphy is Raytheon Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University and directs the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR). She received a B.M.E. in mechanical engineering, a M.S. and Ph.D in computer science in 1980, 1989, and 1992, respectively, from Georgia Institute of Technology. She has over 150 publications on artificial intelligence, human-robot interaction, and robotics including the Introduction to AI Robotics and Disaster Robotics, which won the 2014 PROSE honorable mention for engineering and science writing at the American Publishers Awards. An IEEE Fellow and a founder of Roboticists Without Borders, she has worked in disaster robotics research and deployment since 1995. Murphy has inserted ground, air, and marine robots at 19 disasters world-wide including the 9/11 World Trade Center disaster, Hurricane Katrina, and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident. Her numerous professional awards include the Motohiro Kisoi award (Japan), the AUVSI Foundation Al Aube award, and the 2014 ACM Eugene L. Lawler Award for Humanitarian Contributions Within Computer Science and Informatics. She has been declared an “Innovator in AI” by TIME, an “Alpha Geek” by WIRED Magazine, one of the “Most Influential Women in Technology” by Fast Company, and one of the Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers for 2015 by Government Technology Magazine.
