Partners: Cynthia Chen, Kurtis Heimerl, Dan Abramson, Esther Jang, and Ridley LeDoux
SSEC Engineers: Niki Burggraf, Don Setiawan, Anuj Sinha, Parvati Jayakumar, and Ying-Hsiang Huang
Research Goals and Domain
Natural disasters isolate communities, leaving them to fend for themselves. UW THINKlab is interested in the untapped physical and social capacity within communities to drive their own post disaster efforts.
Software Problem
The researchers were interested in exploring whether a mobile app could leverage community-based physical and social capital for effective information and resource sharing.
Software Solution
SSEC developed an open source progressive web app with a Flutter frontend and a Supabase backend. This was deployed securely to the cloud on AWS using OpenTofu. Now, households impacted by disasters can sign up, creating an inventory of their own resources and complete disaster preparedness checklists.
Impact
UW THINKlab can start testing the app with the communities they work with and find out how they can improve its capabilities. The project fills a big gap both in the government disaster response effort and in science by empowering local communities. The system will be used by community members, organizations, and city emergency responders.