Sunday, November 25, 2007 Cabaero: Disaster and opportunity By Nini B. Cabaero Beyond 30
IN Chinese characters, disaster and opportunity are depicted by the same symbol.
It has become a popular refrain then in any disaster situation that when tragedy strikes there is the opportunity for people to redeem themselves, to be compassionate and resourceful.
But before disaster strikes, there are opportunities already presented by technology to avert damage, mitigate effects and respond to the emergency.
It is on how to tap the technology for the purpose that is the challenge.
Student-faculty teams from schools all over the country are taking that challenge in an innovation program of Smart Communications Inc. The challenge is called the Sweep or the Smart Wireless Engineering Education Program.
In February next year, the telecommunications company will hold the 4th Sweep Innovation and Excellence Awards to recognize the work of these student-faculty teams on the theme “Going wireless for disaster preparedness.”
Had these inventions of the students been around, the damage wrought by massive billboards toppled by strong winds in a typhoon that hit Cebu last week would have been avoided or lessened. One finalist to the Sweep awards was an innovation presented by students of the Bulacan State University where a software application service would enable billboard owners to roll up their billboards when the wind blows at a speed exceeding safety standards.
Had the “ILocate” application of the same university been around, those trapped under tons of soil in mudslides in Leyte last year would have been found and probably rescued. The invention is a frequency scanner that is capable of detecting those trapped underground by earthquakes or landslides. Its system consists of a frequency scanner, a transmitter and mobile phones connected to them. In the Leyte mudslides, those inside the buried school were able to send text messages until time passed and everything fell silent.
Information dissemination by government agencies tasked with alerting the public of impending emergencies would have been augmented by the Flood Alert Service Texts project of Ateneo de Manila University students, the geo-specific public warning system using cell broadcasting service proposed by University of St. La Salle students, and the SIManager wireless disaster information management system by the Universidad de Zamboanga team.
These students will display their working prototypes in the Sweep awards to be held at the SM City Cebu on Feb. 1 and 2, 2008.
Technology makes life easy for some and complicated for others, depending on which side of the fence you’re in or on whether you are a “technophilic” who celebrates the benefits of technology or a “technophobic” who believes technology can be one’s damnation.
In this endeavor to tap wireless technology for disaster preparedness, innovation becomes critical in saving lives in the midst of calamity.
