NSF Org:	CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems
Recipient:	UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
Initial Amendment Date:	June 29, 2023
Latest Amendment Date:	May 29, 2024
Award Number:	2311405
Award Instrument:	Standard Grant
Program Manager:	Vishal Sharma vsharma@nsf.gov  (703)292-0000 CNS  Division Of Computer and Network Systems CSE  Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering
Start Date:	October 1, 2023
End Date:	September 30, 2027 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount:	$2,000,000.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date:	$2,020,000.00
Funds Obligated to Date:	FY 2023 = $2,000,000.00 FY 2024 = $20,000.00
History of Investigator:	Cynthia Chen (Principal Investigator) qzchen@u.washington.edu Daniel Abramson (Co-Principal Investigator) Tyler McCormick (Co-Principal Investigator) Shuai Huang (Co-Principal Investigator) Kurtis Heimerl (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office:	University of Washington 4333 BROOKLYN AVE NE SEATTLE WA  US  98195-1016 (206)543-4043
Sponsor Congressional District:	07
Primary Place of Performance:	University of Washington 4333 Brooklyn Ave NE Seattle WA  US  98195-0001
Primary Place of Performance Congressional District:	07
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):	HD1WMN6945W6
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s):	S&CC: Smart & Connected Commun, Special Projects - CNS
Primary Program Source:	01002324DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01002425DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s):	042Z, 9251
Program Element Code(s):	033Y00, 171400
Award Agency Code:	4900
Fund Agency Code:	4900
Assistance Listing Number(s):	47.070

ABSTRACT

When a disaster strikes, communities often become isolated and citizens come together to help each other: people share resources, pass along information, and take on tasks that are outside of their usual domains. These activities have been reported in both academic literature and anecdotal documents. Some examples include: New Yorkers? sharing private vehicles and boats during the 2005 MTA strike that crippled NYC transit services; and neighbors helping neighbors escape from flooding caused by 2016?s Hurricane Matthew using rafts improvised from inflatable mattresses in Rowland, NC. These peer-to-peer resource sharing activities fill important gaps during times of disaster that cannot be fulfilled by emergency response agencies. This project helps fill this gap by working with urban and rural, higher- and lower-income communities in Washington State to understand and advance more effective local information and resource dissemination during a disaster. The project integrates hardware, robust communication technologies, social capacities, and spatial conditions to leverage and enhance place-based social networks for information-resource sharing; and investigate a little-studied scientific frontier intersecting communications, sharing, and disaster resilience. The results of the project will be scalable and useful on a daily and emergency basis to communities that increasingly face natural disaster risks and are interested in enhancing their resilience through information and resource sharing.

More specifically, the project will co-design with the two communities and conduct research in four thrusts. Thrust 1?robust communications, will develop robust off-grid community-based networks that are owned and operated by the community. Thrust 2?building community social networks for information-resource sharing, will conduct surveys to collect information about people?s sharing behavior and their social ties within a community, and develop novel models to infer community-based social networks. Thrust 3?community-based information-resource sharing, will develop models and strategies that will lead to efficient information-resource sharing. The key hypothesis is that social network structures affect the optimality and stability of information-resource sharing. Thrust 4 (Dynamic Map your Neighborhood) integrates the results of Thrusts 1-3 and uses them to co-design and pilot-test applications with two communities in WA (urban and rural). The diverse team expertise facilitates knowledge and methods across disciplines through the design of robust communication technologies, and novel ways to solicit social ties information and information-resource sharing models that considers both model optimality and human inputs (e.g., leader nominations from the communities).

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

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