Dr. ZhiQiang Chen, a recognized disaster sensing and computing expert, is participating in a national collaborative project, Earthquake Data Enhanced Cyber-Infrastructure for Disaster Evaluation and Response (E-DECIDER).  The project is a collaboration between the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), ImageCat, Inc., Indiana University, University of California Davis, University of Missouri-Kansas City, and the US Geological Survey.  Their research will be funded by a recently awarded NASA project, “Enhancing E-DECIDER with Loss and Damage Estimation Capability”.

The project aims to build the next-generation decision-support computing infrastructure and web services for improving national earthquake disaster resilience. During Phase 1 of this project, Dr. Chen and ImageCat, Inc. will develop novel damage detection algorithms and work to integrate them with the NASA geophysical modeling and earthquake forecasting tools using a cloud-computing infrastructure. The project will also employ the emerging crowdsourcing techniques and mobile-cloud computing methodologies for validating computational seismic damage detection and for improving public awareness of earthquake impact (see picture below). Under its current scope, the enhanced E-DECIDER will deliver remote sensing and modeling results to first responders for more rapid assessment of earthquake impact, thus helping to prioritize important post-event response activities. The project has recognized both national and regional stakeholders and collaborators, such as California Conservation Agency, California Earthquake Clearinghouse, and the FEMA sponsored Unified Incident Command and Decision Support (UICDS) Program.

Dr. Chen is an Assistant Professor in the UMKC School of Computing and Engineering’s Civil and Mechanical Engineering Department.