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| MITRE's Helping Hand for Haiti April 2010
Haiti is still recovering from the earthquake on Jan. 12 that killed hundreds of thousands and devastated the country's physical infrastructure. MITRE employees reached out to aid in relief efforts—both as part of MITRE's work and as volunteers. Here are a few of their stories. Eagle Vision The earthquake (which measured 7.0 on the Richter scale) caused massive damage to the country's physical infrastructure as well to its information technology—including the ability to share critical data with responders. But thanks to a commercial satellite imagery receiving and processing system known as Eagle Vision, help was on the way almost immediately. MITRE has led Eagle Vision's system engineering efforts since 1994, when the program was developed at the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base. Using commercial off-the-shelf hardware and software, Eagle Vision provides real-time acquisition and processing of commercial satellite imagery for military and civil use. Although there are five ground stations receiving remote sensing satellite data, it was two stations run by the National Guard in Alabama and South Carolina that were tasked to help in the wake of the Haiti earthquake. Within 24 hours of the disaster, Eagle Vision was collecting data above the devastated country. "It was difficult to get data into Haiti because the ports were damaged and the flights were handling more critical payloads," says Jack McDonald, principal engineer for the ISR Information Systems department and Eagle Vision task leader. Since the National Guard was flying into the country daily, however, laptops with the Eagle Vision-collected imagery arrived in Port-au-Prince within 48 hours. The maps and new satellite imagery provided responders with critical information, such as which roads were open and the extent of the damage to ports and airfields. "I would love to say that we jumped on airplanes and saved people personally," McDonald says. "But what we did do was make sure that responders had the information resources they needed to efficiently do their job." Triaging Tweets McDonald's support for Haiti came via his MITRE work program, but other employees used MITRE-approved civic time to lend a hand. James Rosen, a senior information systems engineer in the Command and Control Center, volunteered at a weekend "crisis camp" in Boston. Organized by Crisis Commons, which was founded in 2009, the technology support-focused camp was part of a larger community consisting of citizen volunteers, crisis response organizations, international humanitarian relief agencies, non-profits, and the private sector. Camps are held in cities around the world. At the Boston camp, Rosen and others worked on sorting through and triaging tweets that served as data for a website called Ushahidi. For example, many people sent out tweets about how to make donations by texting a certain number. The volunteers at the camp looked for tweets that reported water shortages, buildings that needed repair, or other emergency situations. These tweets were marked as "valuable" and Ushahidi forwarded them to the appropriate relief organization. The following week, Rosen used civic time to help build a low-bandwidth version of the Ushahidi site that was accessible to relief organizations in Haiti. "This is a great way to get involved with the community, accomplish something worthwhile, and meet other people in the field," he says. Life-Focusing Event Carl Schone, site leader at MITRE's Norfolk, Va. site, had been planning to visit Haiti as part of a humanitarian group even before the earthquake occurred. Since they were not allowed into Port-au-Prince, his group primarily focused on their original plan to volunteer in the city of Cap Haitien, about 90 miles to the north. One afternoon was spent working at an orphanage, where the group did some demolition work, cleaned sinks, checked on structural repair work, repaired a roof, and performed prep work for an electricity generating solar panel. Another day, volunteers worked with two Haitian carpenters to put a roof over an outside bathroom at an elder care facility. During their stay group members struggled to move from place to place as they helped by changing money, buying medicine and drugs, and delivering food and water. The group also worked closely with a Haitian doctor at the local hospital. According to Schone, the doctor asked him, "Do you know you have saved the lives of hundreds? If you had not been here to pay for the drugs this week, we could not have coped. Lives would have been lost, legs would not have been saved, infections would have maimed." Schone, who described the trip as "a life-focusing event," says many members of the group remain committed to returning to Haiti and continuing to pursue sustained volunteer work. Soup for the Soul Finally, employees wishing to lend their support didn't even have to leave the MITRE campus: on Feb. 26, Corporate Chefs, Inc. served a special meal to raise money for Haiti earthquake relief. In McLean, the menu featured Creole-style baked fish with red beans and rice. Two dollars of every meal sold was donated to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief and Development Fund. In Bedford, donations were accepted for a special serving of "Soup for the Soul." "Just eating this wonderful meal made me think of how lucky we are and how the people of Haiti are struggling," said Marc Narkus-Kramer, an aircraft integration leader at the Center for Advanced Aviation System Development. "This was another great opportunity to give to these people who are in great need." —by Tricia C. Bailey, Dawn A. Stapleton, and Russell Woolard Page last updated: May 21, 2010 | Top of page |
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