Team Research

The U.S. Army is acutely aware of the threats to its mission and to national security posed by increasing frequency and intensity of natural and man-made disasters (e.g., hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes, active shooters, terrorism, or state sponsored attacks), particularly to its domestic installations and the surrounding civilian communities. New technologies such as 3D immersive mixed-reality offer tremendous potential to improve training, better communicate risks, and facilitate disaster mitigation planning within the emergency management community, both in military and civilian settings. This project builds upon Drawn Together, an existing UGA-developed 3D immersive mixed-reality system, with the goals of customizing it for application in the military-civilian emergency management context and potentially integrating it into efforts to develop a common operational disaster management data platform. Specifically, the project team will work with the U.S. Army Garrison at Fort Stewart, near Savannah, Georgia, local emergency management professionals, and the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency (GEMA) to: 1) conduct an on-site demonstration of Drawn Together to identify opportunities for installation-specific customization, 2) conduct interviews and focus groups with key emergency management personnel internal and external to the installation to identify how to align Drawn Together’s capabilities with Fort Stewart’s needs as well as identify how AI and data analytics might advance the installation’s goal of developing a common operating disaster management data platform, and 3) conduct usability testing to inform a broader research agenda to improve disaster management systems that support both installations and surrounding defense communities. The project has tremendous potential for future funding from the Department of Defense, the Army, GEMA, and numerous research programs, as well as having a high level of commercial potential to serve both military installations and civilian communities across the country.

Team Lead

Sun Joo “Grace” Ahn
sjahn@uga.edu
Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication
Departments of Advertising & Public Relations
Center for Advanced Computer-Human Ecosystems (CACHE)

Team Members

Kyle Johnsen
kjohnsen@uga.edu
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Georgia Informatics Institutes for Research and Education

Prashant Doshi
pdoshi@uga.edu
School of Computing
Institute for Artificial Intelligence

Ben McGarr
benjamin.mcgarr@uga.edu
Public Service and Outreach
Carl Vinson Institute of Government

Shana Jones
shanaj@uga.edu
Public Service and Outreach
Carl Vinson Institute of Government

Austin Dobbs
austin.dobbs@uga.edu
College of Public Health
Institute for Disaster Management

James Byars
jmbyars@uga.edu
Public Service and Outreach
Carl Vinson Institute of Government

Curt Harris
cuharris@uga.edu
College of Public Health
Institute for Disaster Management

Morgan Taylor
Morgan.Taylor@uga.edu
College of Public Health
Institute for Disaster Management

Scott Pippin
jspippin@uga.edu
Public Service and Outreach
Carl Vinson Institute of Government

Dessa Benson
dessabenson@uga.edu
Public Service and Outreach
Carl Vinson Institute of Government

Leigh Elkins
laelkins@uga.edu
Public Service and Outreach
Carl Vinson Institute of Government

Chester “Beau” Bradley
chester.f.bradley2.civ@army.mil
Protection Branch Plans and Operations Division, U.S.

Jennifer Peterson
jennifer.m.peterson62.civ@army.mil
Resource Management Office and Plans, Analysis

Randall Mathews
rjmathews@chathamcounty.org
Chatham Emergency Management Agency