A NEW DIMENSION IN SEARCH AND RESCUE

Scientist from 26 countries worldwide are working to conduct search and rescue efforts based on the position of the individuals. Only one scientist from Turkey participates in the research where scientists from different fields such as computer sciences, geography, and mapping take place. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Akcan, Lecturer at IUE Department of Software Engineering, participates in the project which aims to identify the location of the victims and communicate the map information to the search and rescue teams in the event of disasters.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Akcan gave information about TUBITAK funded European Union COST ‘European Cooperation in Science and Technology’ (Mapping and The Citizen Sensor) project, and stated that they planned to coordinate search and rescue so that it is done faster and consciously. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Akcan said, “The purpose is to collect the location information in one centre, and provide the exact coordinates to the search and rescue teams. The telephone companies are able to locate the position of the people through the text messages they send during emergency. It is possible to gather such information in other cases with a special software that will be written via the GPS units on smart phones. All of those information will be collected digitally. The data will be processed by volunteers, or computer software with the help of a digital infrastructure to be established, and GPS coordinates will be used in mapping. Existing infrastructure such as Google map can be used for this purpose.”

 
‘The problem will be solved first’

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Akcan said that scientists from 26 countries such as Germany, Belgium, Greek, Italy, Ireland, Norway, and England worked on the project. He said that COST projects aimed to bring scientists together to come up with solutions for problems. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Akcan indicated that they analysed the existing search and rescue systems and he said, “No physical action is required in the project. It creates the necessary grounds for the upcoming EU projects. Many teams also report from abroad in case of emergency. We need to coordinate these. Our purpose is to communicate the information on where the people are, what they need, etc. to the search and rescue teams in a coordinated way.”