GEAR Lab is delighted to announce that we are part of a $1.1 million NSF grant for the project titled "Collaborative Research: HNDS-I: Cyberinfrastructure for Human Dynamics and Resilience Research." This project is under the leadership of Dr. Nina Lam from Louisiana State University (LSU), and the Co-Principal Investigators (Co-PIs) include Dr. Lei Zou from GEAR Lab, Dr. Heng Cai from Texas A&M, Dr. Yi Qiang from the University of South Florida, Dr. Kisung Lee from LSU, and Dr. Kenan Li from Saint Louis University. The project is scheduled to commence on September 1, 2023, with an estimated conclusion date of August 31, 2026. Texas A&M has been awarded a total of $257,914.00 for its involvement in the project.
Advancing science-based resilience research is urgently needed. Recent research and practice has introduced the use of big human dynamics data, e.g., social media, cellphone-based mobility, and large-scale questionnaires on population migration, into understanding and enhancing disaster resilience. However, leveraging big human dynamics data for resilience research is challenging due to the technical difficulties in collecting and processing data collected from diverse sources, inherent biases and noises within geospatial big data, and the potential ethical issues brought by Big Data and AI. This project aims to overcome these difficulties by developing a national cyberinfrastructure called the Human Dynamics and Resilience (HDR) infrastructure, which contains large-scale data and analytic tools to support and advance human dynamics and resilience research. The knowledge gained from visualizing and analyzing the data using this infrastructure can better inform policies to increase community resilience. Detailed information can be found by following this link: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2318206&HistoricalAwards=false.
Figure 1. Screenshot of the NSF-funded project.
Kudos to the research team and GEAR Lab! Stay tuned for further research findings stemming from this thrilling project!
