Program

# Day 1: Identifying and Understanding Challenges

• 8:30 - 9:00am : Registration and Informal Greetings
• 9:00 - 9:15am : Welcome and Brief on Symposium Goals and Convergence Program
• 9:15 - 10:45am : Participant Introductory Presentations (120 seconds each - strict limit): Each participant can send 1 slide in advance to Shweta (preferred format: Quad Chart):
  1. identify most important past work or expertise or experience
  2. interest in convergence (what you can contribute)
• 10:45am - 12:15pm : Practitioner Panel on Domain Challenges across Different Disaster Phases (Coordinator: Susan Cutter)
  • Steve Peterson, Montgomery County CERT
  • Katie Picchione, FEMA
  • Ken Rentiers, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources
  • Mark Wilbert, City of Charleston
• 12:15 - 1:30pm : Lunch Break (Served - Buffet Style)
• 1:30 - 3:30pm : Practitioner-led Breakout Groups on different operational and technical challenges during different stages of disaster management
  • Hurricanes [Lead: Rick Devoe, S.C. Sea Grant Consortium; Co-leads: Keri Stephens, UT Austin & Andrea Tapia, Penn State]
  • Floods [Lead: Susan Lovelace, S.C. Sea Grant Consortium; Co-leads: Hanif Chaudhary, U. of S. Carolina & Jess Kropczynski, U. Cincinnati]
  • Wildfires [Lead: Ilkay Altinas, San Diego Supercomputing Center; Co-leads: Amanda Hughes, Brigham Young Univ. & Deepak Khazanchi, U. Nebraska]
  • Tornadoes [Lead: Terry Orozi, Dayton Think Tank; Co-leads: Valerie Shalin, Wright State & Monica Sanders, U. Delaware]
• 3:30 - 4:00pm : Coffee Break
• 4:00 - 5:30pm : Breakout Group Summaries on Identified Research and Convergence Needs (Coordinator: Hemant Purohit)
• 5:30 - 7:00pm : Working Reception - Posters and Demos (Open for all participants)

  Demo highlights [2 minutes teaser to the tool you can demo]
  [Poster & Demo Co-chair: Erfan Goharian, Univ. of South Carolina]

  Poster Title

  1. Smart big data pipeline for Aging Rural bridge Transportation Infrastructure [Author: Deepak Khazanchi, U. Nebraska]
  2. Creating a High-Signal Dataset with Private Social Media [Authors: Keri K. Stephens, Dhiraj Murthy, Brett W. Robertson, & W. Roth Smith, UT Austin]
  3. Improving Resiliency through Real-Time Disaster Research - An Emergency Manager's Perspective [Author: Steve Peterson, Montgomery County Maryland CERT]
  4. Computational artifacts for distributed human planning and action in physical domains: Combining lessons from space operations and European disaster response [Authors: Valerie L. Shalin, Wright State University & Beatrice Linot, University of Lorraine]

  Demos Title

  1. AI and Social Media Multimodal Data for Disaster Response [Authors: Muhammad Imran, Ferda Ofli, Firoj Alam, Umair Qazi, Qatar Computing Research Institute]
  2. CitizenHelper: AI-augmented Multimodal Stream Analytics System for Training and Operations of Emergency Services [Authors: Hemant Purohit, Rahul Pandey, Gaurav Bahl, Ganesh Nalluru, Brenda Bannan, George Mason University]
  3. Improving Resiliency through Real-Time Disaster Research - An Emergency Manager's Perspective [Authors: Steve Peterson, Montgomery County Maryland CERT]
  4. Disaster Record [Authors: T. K. Prasad and Amit Sheth]
Dinner on own - Plenty of Nice Restaurants in Walking Distance

# Day 2: Towards Addressing Challenges

• 9:00 - 10:15am : Practitioner Panel on Vision of Future AI/Big Data Tech-assisted Disaster Management (Coordinator: Ilkay Altinas)
  • Adam Barker, FEMA
  • Dan Burger, SC Dept. of Health and Environmental Control, Charleston Resilience Network
  • Rusty Lacy, Nashville Fire Department
  • Terry Oroszi, Dayton Think Tank
• 10:15 - 12:15pm : Researcher-led Breakout Groups on Technologies addressing Different Disaster Phases
  • Mitigation and Preparedness [Co-leads: Abhishek Dubey, Vanderbilt; Brenda Bannan, George Mason Univ.]
  • Response [Co-leads: Muhammad Imran , QCRI; Ibrahim Demir, Univ. of Iowa]
  • Recovery [Co-leads: T.K. Prasad, Wright State Univ., Chris Zobel, Virginia Tech]
• 12:15 - 1:30pm : Lunch Break (Served- Buffet Style)
• 1:30 - 3:30pm : Breakout Group Summaries on Convergence Challenges (Coordinator: Hemant Purohit)
• 3:30 - 4:00pm : Coffee Break
• 4:00 - 5:30pm : Researcher Panel on Vision of Future Disaster Management Technologies (Coordinator: Amit Sheth)
  • DeeDee Bennett, SUNY Albany
  • Susan Cutter, Univ. of South Carolina
  • Srinivasan Parthasarathy, Ohio State Univ.
  • Hemant Purohit, George Mason Univ
  • Nalini Venkatasubramanian, Univ. of California, Irvine
• 5:30 - 6:00pm : Closing

Dinner on own - Plenty of Nice Restaurants in Walking Distance

Materials

• Brief on Symposium Goals and Convergence Program
• Participant Introductory Presentations
• Practitioner Panel on Domain Challenges across Different Disaster Phases

Organizers

• Prof. Amit Sheth, UofSC (PI) (amit[AT]sc.edu)

• Prof. Hemant Purohit, GMU (hpurohit[AT]gmu.edu)

• Dr. Ilkay Altintas, SDSC (altintas[AT]sdsc.edu)

• Prof. Susan Cutter, UofSC (SCUTTER[AT]mailbox.sc.edu)

Venue

Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center
1101 Lincoln St, Columbia
SC 29201

Contact Us

• Prof. Amit Sheth, UofSC (PI) (amit[AT]sc.edu)

• Prof. Hemant Purohit, GMU (hpurohit[AT]gmu.edu)

• Dr. Shweta Yadav (shweta[AT]knoesis.org)