NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute for FY 2012 in Japan

Southern Mary K, Deephaven MN

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds Mary Southern of University of Minnesota to conduct a research project, entitled "Intelligent agent-based disaster simulation," during the summer of 2012 at Meijo University in Nagoya, Japan. The host scientist is Dr. Tomoichi Takahashi. The Intellectual Merit of the research project is advancing research in search and rescue by modeling evacuation behaviors of people after a disaster, such as an earthquake. Modeling people's behaviors is being done in the context of the RoboCup Rescue Simulator, an open source software tool used to study strategies for disaster and emergency management in large cities. This modeling enriches the simulator and increases understanding of the dynamics of many simulated people in disaster situations. The visualization provided by the simulator helps students understand graph search algorithms. Implementing different path finding algorithms on the large city maps used in the simulator shows students how different algorithms affect performance in realistic situations. There is also potential in the future for this simulator to become a tool to assist rescue workers in developing plans for large-scale disaster response. The Broader Impacts of an EAPSI fellowship include providing the Fellow a first-hand research experience outside the U.S.; an introduction to the science, science policy, and scientific infrastructure of the respective location; and an orientation to the society, culture and language. These activities meet the NSF goal to educate for international collaborations early in the career of its scientists, engineers, and educators, thus ensuring a globally aware U.S. scientific workforce.