RAPID: Collaborative Research: Cloud Environmental Analysis and Relief

这个快速反应研究（Rapid）项目正在开发一种技术，用于无处不在的事件报告和收集2010年墨西哥湾石油泄漏及其生态影响的数据。监测灾害的传统应用程序依赖于专门的、紧密耦合的、昂贵的硬件和软件平台来获取、聚合和传播有关受灾地区的信息。我们缺乏将计算和通信技术快速可靠地集成到自然和工程物理系统、网络物理系统（CPS）中的科学技术。2010年悲惨的墨西哥湾石油泄漏事件，既迫切需要填补这一研究空白，又提供了一个关键的机会，可以通过在现场部署尖端的CPS研究来帮助救灾工作。特别是，这项CPS研究正在开发一个云支持的移动CPS应用程序，使社区成员能够通过传感器部署和直接记录海湾石油泄漏事件和生态影响（如鱼类和鸟类死亡），作为公民科学家做出贡献。该项目利用智能手机的可用性（具有复杂的传感器包、高级编程api和多种网络连接选项）和云计算基础设施，能够收集和聚合来自移动应用程序的数据。目标是为管理移动CPS灾难监测应用程序中出现的服务质量（QoS）、用户协调、传感器数据传播和验证问题开发科学基础。这项研究将对墨西哥湾漏油灾害救援工作产生许多重要的影响，包括为受影响的海湾社区提供帮助，帮助他们实地评估下一代CPS研究，并建立一个持续的能力，以捕捉墨西哥湾漏油事件对生态影响的大快照。由此产生的环境数据将在多个研究领域，尤其是海洋生物学领域，对评估泄漏的后果具有持久的价值。该项目正在与海湾地区的K-12学校合作，将灾害和生态监测活动纳入其课程。所开发的技术（资源优化技术、数据报告协议权衡分析和开放数据环境下社会网络协调策略的实证评估）将为CPS研究界提供资源。预计项目结果将使未来的努力能够创建和验证CPS灾难响应系统，该系统可以扩展到数十万用户，并在网络和计算资源稀缺的生命危急情况下有效运行。

This Rapid Response Research (RAPID) project is developing technology for ubiquitous event reporting and data gathering on the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and its ecological impacts. Traditional applications for monitoring disasters have relied on specialized, tightly-coupled, and expensive hardware and software platforms to capture, aggregate, and disseminate information on affected areas. We lack science and technology for rapid and dependable integration of computing and communication technology into natural and engineered physical systems, cyber-physical systems (CPS). The tragic Gulf oil spill of 2010 presents both a compelling need to fill this gap in research and a critical opportunity to help in relief efforts by deploying cutting-edge CPS research in the field. In particular, this CPS research is developing a cloud-supported mobile CPS application enabling community members to contribute as citizen scientists through sensor deployments and direct recording of events and ecological impacts of the Gulf oil spill, such as fish and bird kills. The project exploits the availability of smartphones (with sophisticated sensor packages, high-level programming APIs, and multiple network connectivity options) and cloud computing infrastructures that enable collecting and aggregating data from mobile applications. The goal is to develop a scientific basis for managing the quality-of-service (QoS), user coordination, sensor data dissemination, and validation issues that arise in mobile CPS disaster monitoring applications. The research will have many important broader impacts related to the Gulf oil spill disaster relief efforts, including providing help for the affected Gulf communities as they field and evaluate next-generation CPS research and build a sustained capability for capturing large snapshots of the ecological impact of the Gulf oil spill. The resulting environmental data will have lasting value for evaluating the consequences of the spill in multiple research fields, but especially in Marine Biology. The project is collaborating with Gulf area K-12 schools to integrate disaster and ecology monitoring activities into their curricula. The technologies developed (resource optimization techniques, data reporting protocol trade-off analysis, and empirical evaluation of social network coordination strategies for an open data environment) will provide a resource for the CPS research community. It is expected that project results will enable future efforts to create and validate CPS disaster response systems that can scale to hundreds of thousands of users and operate effectively in life-critical situations with scarce network and computing resources.