TORONTO, April 28, 2008 -- When you dial 911 to report an emergency, the software that manages the response to your call is the last thing on your mind. But a new collaborative project between researchers at York University and CriSys Limited, funded through the GEOIDE Network, promises to create a next-generation artificial intelligence platform that will help emergency workers to efficiently and effectively respond to disasters such as major fires, floods and building collapses.

Led by York Professor Ali Asgary in the Atkinson Faculty’s School of Administrative Studies, the project will create an artificially intelligent reasoning platform to support disaster preparedness and disaster response management software, with the goal of improving emergency response in Canadian communities. The project is a piece within a large research collaboration to develop an artificial intelligence system to manage responses to building fires. Funded by Precarn, the collaboration includes York, CriSys, Ryerson University and the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs.

”Existing emergency systems don’t make use of the vast amount of rich data that is available to them,” says Professor Asgary. “We need software that better understands the nature and extent of an emergency situation so that it can actively assist the human 911 operators in making the best possible decisions. Creating such a system will be a significant step toward minimizing loss of life and mitigating property losses in major disasters.”

Staff from CriSys Limited will contribute their experience in modeling sophisticated computer systems for fire departments, police forces and emergency medical services. The project team expects to have a prototype system ready for testing within two years. More than a dozen cities across Canada that currently use CriSys software will then test the prototype in live environments.

“As society becomes more interconnected, the full implications of a major emergency become more extensive and more widespread,” says Dale Paus, president of CriSys Limited. “Police and fire agencies need computer systems that can better manage these complexities by having an understanding of the situation and its potential effects on all aspects of the community. By pairing researchers and graduate students with industry practitioners with real-world experience, we’re creating a strong foundation for such a system.”

The research will involve graduate students in York’s Disaster and Emergency Management Program, the only graduate program of its kind in Ontario and one of only two in Canada. The program equips students with the skills and competencies required to prepare for, mitigate, respond to, and recover from local, national and international disasters and emergencies.

“This collaboration exemplifies the network-building that is a hallmark of York’s interdisciplinary approach while allowing the University to grow its strengths in disaster management and computer science,“ says David Dewitt, associate vice-president research, social sciences and humanities. “Projects like this demonstrate the impact research has on the private and public sectors, and contribute to economic competitiveness through innovation.”

York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city. The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 200,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 11 faculties and 24 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries. This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation.

CriSys LImited is a leading supplier of call-handling/dispatch systems and support services for municipalities, state and provincial governments, universities and colleges, and industrial and commercial campuses, serving populations from 5,000 to 500,000 citizens. By combining industry standards and open, non-proprietary platforms with cutting-edge research and design, CriSys systems establish levels of functionality, affordability and reliability that have led to their being selected to serve more than 3 million citizens in over 150 communities from more than twenty 9-1-1 and 3-1-1 centers. Founded in 1990, CriSys is a privately owned corporation with offices in Washington, D.C. and Toronto, Canada.

GEOIDE’s mission is to consolidate and strengthen the domestic geomatics industry, while making optimum use of Canada’s Research and Development resources and to create a sustainable networking structure integrating all sectors of the Canadian geomatics community. The GEOIDE Network is made possible through funding from the Networks of Centres of Excellence program (NCE), a unique partnerships program among universities, industries, government and non-profit organizations aimed at turning Canadian research and entrepreneurial talent into economic and social benefits for all Canadians.

 

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Media contacts
Elizabeth Monier-Williams, Research Communications, York University, 416 736 2100 x21069/ eamw@yorku.ca

Dale Paus, President, CriSys Limited, 905 474 9111 x26/ dpaus@crisys.com