SAVI: EAGER: for Global Research on Applying Information Technology to Support Effective Disaster Management (GRAIT-DM)

灾难造成的损失估计高达数十亿美元，每年有许多人丧生。灾害管理是一项具有挑战性的任务，因为环境和对人的影响似乎是不可预测的变化。该奖项以信息技术和大数据的应用为主要重点，建立了一个全球应用信息技术支持有效灾害管理研究的“虚拟研究所”(GRAIT-DM)。它将促进研究合作和社区活动，目标是改善我们对灾害的准备、应对和恢复。这个虚拟研究所由佐治亚理工学院和东京大学的合作伙伴牵头，是美日合作的成果，在不久的将来应该会发展成为全球合作。信息技术已经改变了现代灾难管理，正如推特所证明的那样，推特在东北地震期间是一个宝贵的信息源。基于大数据的灾害管理研究方法在人类和社会层面上都可能具有变革性和挑战性。考虑到这一点，GRAIT-DM项目支持从环境传感器和信息网络收集大型数据集，这些数据集由致力于灾害管理各个方面的许多研究人员共享。该虚拟研究所通过让大数据生产者(例如传感器网络研究人员)、大数据消费者(例如灾害管理研究人员)以及将大数据生产者与消费者联系起来的大数据管理者(例如数据分析研究人员)参与进来，促进信息技术应用的全球研究。具体活动包括在美国和日本举办社区建设研讨会，推广和出版研究报告，为研究生举办暑期学校和初级研究人员交流等教育活动，以及为社区使用的软件工具提供数据访问和支持的门户网站。更广泛的影响包括有益地利用国际研究和基础设施投资，通过交叉受精加强正在进行的项目，加快与灾害管理相关的创新速度，以及发展一支拥有专门人才的劳动力队伍，能够在一个必须应对灾害的高度相互关联的新世界中脱颖而出。该奖项已被指定为跨虚拟机构科学奖，由美国国家科学基金会国际科学与工程办公室共同资助。

Disasters cause damages estimated in many billions of dollars and many lives lost every year. Disaster management is a challenging task due to the seemingly unpredictable alterations of the environment and impact on people. With the primary focus on the application of information technology and Big Data, this award establishes a "virtual institute" for Global Research on Applying Information Technology to Support Effective Disaster Management (GRAIT-DM). It will foster research collaborations and community activities, with the goal of improving our preparedness for, response to, and recovery from disasters. Led by partners at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Tokyo, the virtual institute is a U.S.-Japanese cooperative effort that should grow to become a global collaboration in the near future.Information technology has transformed modern disaster management, as demonstrated by Twitter which was a valuable information source during the Tohoku Earthquake. A Big Data-based approach to disaster management research can be both transformative and challenging, at both human and social scales. Reflecting this, the GRAIT-DM project supports the collection of large data sets from environmental sensors and information networks shared by many researchers working on various aspects of disaster management. This virtual institute promotes global research on the application of information technology by engaging the big data producers (e.g., sensor networks researchers), big data consumers (e.g., disaster management researchers), and big data managers (e.g., data analytics researchers) who connect the big data producers to consumers. Concrete activities include community-building workshops in the U.S. and Japan, outreach and publication of research reports, educational activities such as summer schools for graduate students and junior researcher exchanges, and a web portal to provide access to data and support for software tools for community use. Broader impacts include beneficial leveraging of international research and infrastructure investments, enhancement of on-going projects through cross-fertilization, an accelerated rate of innovation relevant to disaster management, and the development of a work-force with specialized talent, capable of excelling in a new, highly interconnected world that must cope with disasters.This award has been designated as a Science Across Virtual Institutes (SAVI) award and is being co-funded by NSF's Office of International Science and Engineering.