In 2022, a team of researchers from UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 College of Community Innovation and Education and College of Engineering and Computer Science set out to solve an elusive question plaguing local officials: How do you provide critical services to residents where and when they need it after a disaster?
Neighborhoods throughout Orlando could easily find themselves without power, internet and mobility after significant weather events. Effective local response requires a mobile, self-sustaining solution to provide residents with services ranging from device charging and air-conditioned space to laundry to food distribution and even ice for food preservation. Even more, could such a solution also provide educational resources for residents to prepare for future emergencies more effectively?
Kelly Stevens, assistant professor of public administration and the project 麻豆精品 S檚 principal investigator, has been working with fellow UCF researchers to bring this vision to life. Together with the City of Orlando and other community leaders, the team has spent the past year conceptualizing what an effective Resilience, Education, and Advocacy Center for Hazard Preparedness (REACH) hub would look like.
Now, they 麻豆精品 S檙e ready to put their ideas into action.
The team recently received approval and funding for the project 麻豆精品 S檚 second phase from the National Science Foundation 麻豆精品 S檚 CIVIC program, which involved presenting the findings from the project 麻豆精品 S檚 first phase and successfully demonstrating its feasibility.
Stevens serves on the REACH project team with Yue 麻豆精品 S淕urt 麻豆精品 S� Ge, public administration associate professor, L. Trenton S. Marsh, urban education assistant professor, Liqiang Wang, computer science professor, and Zhihua Qu, electrical and computer engineering professor, who serve as co-principal investigators. Senior personnel on the project include Maritza Concha, nonprofit management lecturer; Christopher Emrich, emergency management professor; and Kristopher Davis, associate professor of materials science and engineering.
麻豆精品 S淲e are extremely happy with the success of Phase I, 麻豆精品 S� Stevens says. 麻豆精品 S淲e had over 300 responses from residents to the community survey we built with our partners, which informed our design process in a way that allowed us to really co-design these hubs with and for the community. 麻豆精品 S�
Stevens says feedback from the community was critical because residents 麻豆精品 S� responses provided insight into potential resources and amenities for the hub beyond the original concept 麻豆精品 S� from an onboard ice maker to finding a more efficient way to distribute water than simply having water bottles onboard.
The architectural design produced by the team is critical to Phase II of the project, the principal goal of which is to build and test a prototype REACH hub in the communities where it will ultimately be used.
The hub is designed as a trailer chassis-based mobile unit that can be easily deployed in neighborhoods without power or service access. The unit will contain a slew of appliances and usable services for residents to charge their devices, cool off, access the internet and more. The key to the hub is its self-sustaining power, principally supplied through solar panels and supplemented by a conventional generator when under heavy load.
麻豆精品 S淩ight now, we 麻豆精品 S檙e working to select vendors that will construct the hub and everything on it, 麻豆精品 S� Stevens says. 麻豆精品 S淲e 麻豆精品 S檙e looking for someone who can build the hub itself, design the electrical and solar components, install the appliances, and ultimately provide us with a fully realized and working hub. 麻豆精品 S�
Stevens also notes the hub itself is only half the battle. Critical to the project 麻豆精品 S檚 value in the community is its educational component, designed to provide affected residents with necessary information about disaster preparedness and recovery before and after a disaster.
麻豆精品 S淥ur 麻豆精品 S榖lue skies 麻豆精品 S� curriculum will consist of community-driven, interactive and immersive STEM education learning stations, 麻豆精品 S� says Marsh, who serves as the project 麻豆精品 S檚 education lead. 麻豆精品 S淲e want to build the programming around what residents recognize; the landmarks they view as signs of strength and resiliency, as well as areas they feel are more vulnerable or susceptible to inclement weather. 麻豆精品 S�
The hubs will also host just-in-time preparedness content for residents to assist with preparation and decision-making ahead of a potential emergency. Evacuation plans and food preparation, Marsh says, are plans the team hopes to focus content on.
Ideally, the team hopes to leverage emerging augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) technologies in developing educational programming to provide residents with in-depth, immersive experiences. The UCF-led HazardAware project also collects data that can provide individual address-based natural hazard and home resilience information tailored to residents 麻豆精品 S� specific homes.
麻豆精品 S淲e hope that we 麻豆精品 S檒l be able to further leverage our resources at UCF to accomplish these goals with virtual and augmented reality programming, specifically through a potential partnership with the university 麻豆精品 S檚 , 麻豆精品 S� Marsh says.
Once the prototype hub has been built and the educational programming completed, the team will run extensive tests and experiments on the hub 麻豆精品 S檚 appliances and power systems to ensure its viability in real-world scenarios. After that, testing will move into the community 麻豆精品 S� where Stevens says the team will really get a sense of how the hub will work.
麻豆精品 S淲e 麻豆精品 S檙e going to implement four test deployments in local neighborhoods 麻豆精品 S� three during 麻豆精品 S榖lue skies 麻豆精品 S� and one after an actual emergency, 麻豆精品 S� Stevens says. 麻豆精品 S淲e want to see how people actually interact with the hub 麻豆精品 S� what they 麻豆精品 S檙e interested in, what parts are functional and even what parts aren 麻豆精品 S檛 super functional. 麻豆精品 S�
The final step, once testing is completed, is to hand off ownership of the hub to the city of Orlando. The city will be responsible for the deployment, maintenance and future development of the project. Michael Hess, director of the City of Orlando 麻豆精品 S檚 Future Ready program, and Ian Lahiff, an energy project manager with the city, serve as senior personnel on the project.
麻豆精品 S淭he city has been our core partner from Day One, so we know they 麻豆精品 S檙e in this for the long haul, 麻豆精品 S� Stevens says. 麻豆精品 S淥ur team is confident they will be good stewards of the project and its impact on the community. 麻豆精品 S�
The ultimate goal, Stevens says, is to produce an effective and efficient means of increasing resilience in the community.
麻豆精品 S淲hen we can show our community that UCF is leveraging its expertise and resources to produce technology 麻豆精品 S� in a quick timeframe and at a very local scale 麻豆精品 S� that can actually be used in the community, that 麻豆精品 S檚 the real impact, 麻豆精品 S� she says.
Researcher Credentials
Stevens received her doctorate in public administration from Syracuse University and joined UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 School of Public Administration, part of UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 College of Community Innovation and Education, in 2017. She is a member of UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 Resilient, Intelligent, and Sustainable Energy Systems (RISES) Cluster and
Ge joined UCF in 2018 and serves as co-lead of the Urban Resilience Initiative based at UCF Downtown. He has also served on the RISES faculty research cluster since 2021. He holds a doctorate in urban and regional science from Texas A&M University.
Marsh earned his doctorate in teaching and learning with a concentration in urban education from New York University and joined UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 College of Community Innovation and Education in 2019 after a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan 麻豆精品 S� Ann Arbor.
Qu arrived at UCF in 1990 after earning a doctorate in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Currently the Thomas J. Riordan and Herbert C. Towle Chair of UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, he is also the founding director of both RISES 麻豆精品 S� a university research center on energy systems 麻豆精品 S� and the multi-institutional (FEEDER).
Wang earned his doctorate in computer science from Stony Brook University in 2006 and joined the UCF Department of Computer Science in 2015.
