VACCINE IN THE NEWS
VACCINE Research Helps Coast Guard Reduce
Deaths in Great Lakes, Plan for Hurricane
VACCINE Receives Excellence Award for Work
with U.S. Coast Guard
As part of the Great Lakes Recreational Boating and
Water Safety Campaign Plan for the U.S. Coast Guard’s
Ninth District, the VACCINE Center at Purdue University
developed sophisticated modeling tools and a
technology called cgSARVA which allowed the Coast
Guard to identify the highest areas of swimmer deaths
in the Great Lakes and detect patterns of when deaths
occurred. The Coast Guard could then redistribute their
resources to those areas most in need of patrols during
peak swimming season; this resulted in an overall
decrease in water-related deaths and an increase in
lives saved in 2011. cgSARVA was also used to
determine the best allocation of resources during
Hurricane Irene in 2011. The storm was originally
forecast to hit the east coast over Labor Day, and the
Coast Guard planned to divert resources from the Ninth
District to assist in relief efforts. However, cgSARVA
was used to analyze the situation and indicated that the
need in the Great Lakes over a holiday weekend was
great, so resources were pulled from another district to
provide relief for hurricane victims along the east coast.
The VACCINE Center was awarded the Commander
Atlantic Area’s Excellence Coin for their work with the
U.S. Coast Guard District Nine (Great Lakes) and District
One (Boston and New England). The prestigious award
was presented to Dr. David S. Ebert, Silicon Valley
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at
Purdue and Director of the VACCINE Center, by Vice
Admiral Parker, Commander Atlantic Area, U.S. Coast
Guard. The VACCINE team worked with the Ninth U.S.
Coast Guard District to develop a software tool called
cgSARVA that allows the Coast Guard to determine
potential increase or decrease in risk for factors such as
response time, potential lives and property lost and
reallocation of available resources that are associated
with resource reallocation due to budget changes and
retiring volunteers.
The software tool is currently
being used by the Ninth District of the U.S. Coast Guard,
and will expand to District Five in the near future.
VACCINE Center Working with Police on Gang
Graffiti and Hazmat Tools
Gang graffiti often contains hidden messages and
identifying characteristics. Now VACCINE researchers have
created applications that enable cell phones and other
portable devices to translate the meaning of gang graffiti
for law enforcement and hazardous materials placards for
emergency first responders. The Gang Graffiti Automatic
Recognition and Interpretation (GARI) technology allows
the officer to take a photo of the graffiti, which then goes
back to the server and is compared against the graffiti
image database. The officer receives details regarding the
identity and meaning of the graffiti image and can use this
information to refine his/her analysis.
Steve Schafer, Detective, Criminal Gang Unit, Indianapolis
Police, says of GARI, “GARI is still in its infancy, and we
can't yet use it to its full potential because we are still
trying to populate the database. But once this gets going,
it's going to be beautiful--it will be very helpful and very
useful. GARI can really help the street officers because it's
available 24/7--it's quick and instantaneous.” The GARI
technology has been introduced to the Department of
Public Safety Division of Homeland Security and the
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, and they
will be the first in the United States with this technology.
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VACCINE has also developed a tool to assist first
responders in identifying hazardous materials placards
when out in the field. MERGE (Mobile Emergency
Response Guidebook), a first responder can either take a
photo or punch in an identifying number on a hazmat sign
into his/her phone. The technology then identifies the
type of hazardous materials present and also provides
information regarding the appropriate response protocol
and evacuation perimeters.
Dave McDowell, Director of Carroll County, IN,
Emergency Management Agency in Delphi, used MERGE
with a group of his first responders to test the speed of
identifying hazmat signs. First responders would normally
carry a hard copy of the Emergency Response Guidebook
in their vehicle and look up the hazmat sign in the book to
identify it, which can take time. “It’s very quick,” said
McDowell, “and it doesn’t require you to have the
guidebook nearby.”
VACCINE
Visual Analytics for Command, Control and Interoperability Environments
A Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Center of Excellence