Using big data to improve disaster response
In a disaster, time is of the essence. Sending humans into a disaster area to assess the safety of each building and road can take weeks, but a team led by an Ohio State geospatial engineer is working to speed up that process to just a few days.
Rongjun Qin is an assistant professor in Ohio State’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His team starts with imagery generated by satellites, drones and other aircraft, and then develops algorithms that interpret the data.
“Satellites can capture six terabytes of data every day,” Qin said. “We are focused on taking that data, and then figuring out how to process it into something useful.”
Qin said that having baseline images is crucially important, particularly when it comes to assessing change, such as when an area has been affected by the devastation created by an earthquake. Algorithms created by Qin and his team analyze the multi-source imagery to provide a before-and-after assessment that gives first responders actionable information.
"Comparing the before and after provides very accurate data,” he said. “Based on that, you can do a massive estimation, rather than having people inspect every roof. The time saved can equal saved lives.”
Qin is part of Translational Data Analytics @ Ohio State, a program that serves as a foundational part of Ohio State’s Discovery Themes’ effort. TDA boasts 104 faculty representing 46 disciplines and has recruited 39 new faculty to Ohio State since 2015. In addition to launching TDA, Ohio State was the first research university to offer an interdisciplinary bachelor’s degree in data analytics.
Ohio State President Michael V. Drake has challenged the university to re-envision the role of the land-grant university in the 21st century. Ohio State’s Discovery Themes, which focus the institution’s intellectual might on solving the grand challenges of our time, are one of the ways Drake’s challenge is being met. Data analytics research conducted through the Translational Data Analytics program supports research in the Discovery Themes areas of energy and environment, food production and security, health and wellness, and humanities and the arts.
Qin joined Ohio State in 2015 after serving as a researcher at ETH Zurich, a science and technology-focused university in Europe. He said he decided to come to Ohio State in part because it created the ability for him to work with researchers from a variety of different disciplines, a must considering the technology he develops has a number of different practical applications. He recently earned a seed grant with Ohio State political scientist Erin Lin, and their work will focus on using remote sensing to detect the impact of bombing and consequent demining efforts in Cambodia, and their relation to the country's economic growth.