From L to R: Carol Davids, Alan Johnston, Enzo Piacenza, Maxime Descos, Neilabh Okhandiar, and Nicolas Deschamps
The Information Technology and Management (ITM) hackathon team of professors Carol Davids and Alan Johnston, along with current and former ITM students Enzo Piancenza, Nicolas Deschamps, Maxime Descos, Neilabh Okhandiar, and Bharat Ramaswamy Nandakumar recently competed along with 18 other teams at The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Hackathon.
Their project, “Building the WebRTC PSAP for e911” is based on the ongoing Indoor Location Project in the Real-Time Communications Lab. The project helps locate the 9-1-1 caller to an exact location within a building rather than just an address. As an example, if someone calls 9-1-1, the “Building the WebRTC PSAP for e911” project will notify emergency responders of the address and that the caller is on the 14th floor in the southwest corner.
The goal of the Hackathon was to create a web-based answering point that would allow the dispatcher as well as the dispatched–the firefighters, police, paramedics–to see the caller, the caller’s indoor and outdoor location, to have a chat as well as audio/video exchange with the caller, and to exchange much more rich media and information with the caller than is presently possible.
Students used skills they acquired in ITMD 545 and ITMO 546/7 as well as basic programing and database skills.
Several others who could not attend that weekend also provided remote support: Francisco Rois, a current student, and Alberto Trastoy, another graduate of the ITM program.
From L to R: Enzo Piacenza, Nicolas Deschamps, Alan Johnston, Carol Davids, and Bharat Ramaswamy Nandakumar