{"id":3184,"date":"2026-03-12T14:58:56","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T14:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/team-research\/?post_type=projects&p=3184"},"modified":"2026-03-12T20:06:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T20:06:57","slug":"disaster-education-and-risk-communication-using-artificial-intelligence-and-immersive-technologies","status":"publish","type":"projects","link":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/team-research\/projects\/disaster-education-and-risk-communication-using-artificial-intelligence-and-immersive-technologies\/","title":{"rendered":"Disaster Education and Risk Communication Using Artificial Intelligence and Immersive Technologies"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row disable_element=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1596458870957{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-right: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;padding-right: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1579011887505{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1773151341806{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}”]<\/p>\n

Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grant Program<\/a><\/h1>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row bg_type=”bg_color” css=”.vc_custom_1642004953070{margin-right: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-right-width: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-right: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}” bg_color_value=”#004e60″][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1578671862861{background-color: #004e60 !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1773326761708{margin-left: 10px !important;}”]<\/p>\n

Disaster Education and Risk Communication Using Artificial Intelligence and Immersive Technologies
\n<\/span><\/h3>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1642018498769{margin-right: 0px !important;border-right-width: 0px !important;padding-right: 0px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”3245″ img_size=”full” alignment=”right” css=”.vc_custom_1773346015316{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-right: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;border-right-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;padding-right: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;background-color: #004e60 !important;}”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1595855041843{margin-top: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”2\/3″][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text css=””]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\u2019s capabilities with Fort Stewart\u2019s needs as well as identify how AI and data analytics might advance the installation\u2019s 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.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_column_text css=””]<\/p>\n

Team Lead<\/h4>\n

Sun Joo “Grace” Ahn<\/strong>
\nsjahn@uga.edu<\/a>
\nGrady College of Journalism and Mass Communication
\nDepartments of Advertising & Public Relations
\nCenter for Advanced Computer-Human Ecosystems (CACHE)<\/p>\n

Team Members<\/h4>\n

Kyle Johnsen<\/strong>
\nkjohnsen@uga.edu<\/a>
\nElectrical and Computer Engineering
\nGeorgia Informatics Institutes for Research and Education<\/p>\n

Prashant Doshi<\/strong>
\npdoshi@uga.edu<\/a>
\nSchool of Computing
\nInstitute for Artificial Intelligence<\/p>\n

Ben McGarr<\/strong>
\nbenjamin.mcgarr@uga.edu<\/a>
\nPublic Service and Outreach
\nCarl Vinson Institute of Government<\/p>\n

Shana Jones<\/strong>
\nshanaj@uga.edu<\/a>
\nPublic Service and Outreach
\nCarl Vinson Institute of Government<\/p>\n

Austin Dobbs<\/strong>
\naustin.dobbs@uga.edu<\/a>
\nCollege of Public Health
\nInstitute for Disaster Management<\/p>\n

James Byars<\/strong>
\njmbyars@uga.edu<\/a>
\nPublic Service and Outreach
\nCarl Vinson Institute of Government<\/p>\n

Curt Harris<\/strong>
\ncuharris@uga.edu<\/a>
\nCollege of Public Health
\nInstitute for Disaster Management<\/p>\n

Morgan Taylor<\/strong>
\nMorgan.Taylor@uga.edu<\/a>
\nCollege of Public Health
\nInstitute for Disaster Management<\/p>\n

Scott Pippin<\/strong>
\njspippin@uga.edu<\/a>
\nPublic Service and Outreach
\nCarl Vinson Institute of Government<\/p>\n

Dessa Benson<\/strong>
\ndessabenson@uga.edu<\/a>
\nPublic Service and Outreach
\nCarl Vinson Institute of Government<\/p>\n

Leigh Elkins<\/strong>
\nlaelkins@uga.edu<\/a>
\nPublic Service and Outreach
\nCarl Vinson Institute of Government<\/p>\n

Chester “Beau” Bradley<\/strong>
\nchester.f.bradley2.civ@army.mil<\/a>
\nProtection Branch Plans and Operations Division, U.S.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Peterson<\/strong>
\njennifer.m.peterson62.civ@army.mil<\/a>
\nResource Management Office and Plans, Analysis<\/p>\n

Randall Mathews<\/strong>
\nrjmathews@chathamcounty.org<\/a>
\nChatham Emergency Management Agency[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"featured_media":3245,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[32],"class_list":["post-3184","projects","type-projects","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2025-presidential"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/team-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/projects\/3184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/team-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/projects"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/team-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/projects"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/team-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/projects\/3184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3264,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/team-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/projects\/3184\/revisions\/3264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/team-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/team-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/team-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}