SCC-CIVIC-FA Track B Convergence, Inventory, Matching, and Assignment (CIMA) to Optimize Post-event Housing Repair for Displaced Vulnerable Populations

恶劣天气事件有可能对房屋造成广泛的结构性破坏，导致人口流离失所。流离失所的家庭遭受了巨大的痛苦。从最初流离失所到再次返回稳定住房之间的时间长短因人口而异，中低收入家庭和医疗脆弱家庭往往流离失所时间较长。活动结束后，志愿者劳动力和捐赠物资涌入受灾地区。然而，在特别脆弱的家庭中，供应(捐赠材料和志愿者劳动)与维修需求的匹配并不是最理想的。必须使供应与需求更好地匹配，以便有效地减少脆弱家庭中常见的长期流离失所时间，从而解决复苏和福祉方面的根本不平等问题。该项目将开发、试点和部署融合、库存、匹配和分配(CIMA)平台，以提供这一所需的能力。当非营利性恢复组织使用CIMA时，它将提高供需匹配的效率，并承诺有意义地减少弱势家庭的流离失所时间。该项目将产生多重社会影响。该项目将(A)缩小流离失所时间的差距，进而缩小健康和福祉方面的长期差距；(B)促进恢复过程中的公平和正义问题；(C)与服务不足的社区结成伙伴关系；(D)支持培训包括少数族裔和妇女在内的研究生。更准确地说，CIMA体系结构是一个分散的、无状态的系统，在底层客户端/服务器协议和应用程序编程接口(API)的创建中遵循表述性状态传输(REST)。CIMA的开发和现场流程将(A)推进优化和调度算法的研究；(B)改善与用户需求和预期一致的用户体验界面；(C)执行内部和外部验证；以及(D)针对常见风暴假设和离群点情景对CIMA进行压力测试。该项目是联合公民创新挑战计划的一部分，该计划包括能源汽车技术部办公室、国土安全部科学和技术局、联邦紧急事务管理署和国家科学基金会。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Severe weather events have the potential to inflict wide-spread structural damage to homes, resulting in population displacement. Displaced households suffer enormously. The length of time between initial displacement and returning, once again, to stable housing varies greatly across populations, with low-to-moderate income households and medically fragile households tending to have lengthy displacements. Following an event, volunteer labor and donated materials flow into the impacted region. However, the matching of supply (donated materials and volunteer labor) with the need for repair among particularly vulnerable households is less than optimal. It is essential to more-optimally match supply with the need so that lengthy displacement times common among vulnerable households will be meaningfully reduced, thus addressing fundamental inequities in recovery and wellbeing. This project will develop, pilot, and field the Convergence, Inventory, Matching, and Assignment (CIMA) platform to provide this needed capability. CIMA, when used by nonprofit recovery organizations, will increase efficiency in matching supply with need and promises to meaningfully decrease displacement times among vulnerable households. The project will have multiple societal impacts. It will (a) lessen disparities in displacement times and, by extension, lessen longer-term disparities in health and wellbeing; (b) advance equity and justice issues in recovery; (c) partner with underserved communities; and (d) support the training of graduate students inclusive of racial and ethnic minorities and females.This project will progress through high-level conceptual, implementation, and execution stages. More precisely, the CIMA architecture is a decentralized, stateless system conforming with Representational State Transfer (REST) in the creation of the underlying client/server protocols and Application Programmer Interfaces (APIs). The CIMA development and fielding processes shall (a) advance research in optimization and scheduling algorithms; (b) improve user experience interfaces consistent with user needs and expectations; (c) perform internal and external validation; and (d) stress test CIMA against common storm assumptions as well as outlier scenarios.This project is part of the joint CIVIC Innovation Challenge program which includes Department of Energy Vehicle Technology Office, Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the National Science Foundation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.