NIST offers $1 million for next-gen incident command dashboards
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Teams that use advanced technologies to improve the quality, usability and functionality of incident command dashboards for first responders can earn up to $1 million in the Command Dashboard Integrating Next-Gen, or CommanDING, challenge.
During emergencies, incident commanders often rely on maps, whiteboards and other manual tracking tools to keep tabs on police, fire and emergency medical personnel as well as equipment – all while continuing to gather information as events unfold.
To make it easier to manage complex and dynamic emergencies, the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) Division launched a challenge to advance incident command dashboards.
The Command Dashboard Integrating Next-Gen, or CommanDING, challenge is offering up to $1 million in total prizes to teams that can take advantage of advanced technologies to improve the quality of emergency response.
The four-phase challenge calls on developers with experience in incident command, data science, smart cities, emergency management, industrial control systems or user experience to design solutions that incorporate indoor localization trackers, streaming video analytics, internet-of-things sensors, personal area data networks and 3D laser scans of multi-story buildings,
Contestants' dashboards can be presented through virtual or augmented reality, web interfaces or hand-held devices. All submissions must be able to integrate and respond to multiple data feeds and have an intuitive user interface that makes it effective for public safety officers using mobile devices.
Over the course of the challenge, participants will work with first responders, video analytics professionals and public safety experts to advance the quality and availability of Incident Command Dashboards for public safety. Finalists will demonstrate their dashboard’s capabilities at a live, staged, public safety emergency in a multi-story building.
“The CommanDING Tech Challenge will encourage innovation for developing user-friendly, next-generation interfaces designed for and with public safety, while showcasing the latest capabilities of public safety communications research areas like IoT, analytics and location-based services,” said PSCR Chief Dereck Orr. “We can’t wait to see the innovators’ concepts and prototypes for public safety incident command dashboards.”
The challenge started June 6 and runs through April 2023. More information is available on the CommanDING website.
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