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Published on Thursday, 13 April 2017 16:00

April 12, 2017

Gateway Showcase featuring 

Ensayo Project's SimEOC: A Web-Based Virtual Emergency Operations Center Simulator for Training and Research and 

Spatial Portal for Analysis of Climatic Effects on Species (SPACES) 

Watch the YouTube recording

Ensayo Project's SimEOC: A Web-Based Virtual Emergency Operations Center Simulator for Training and Research

Presented by Greg Madey, University of Notre Dame

Abstract: Training is an integral part of disaster preparedness. Practice in dealing with crises improves one’s ability to manage emergency situations. As an emergency escalates, more and more agencies get involved. These agencies require training to learn how to manage the crisis and to work together across jurisdictional boundaries. Consequently, training requires participation from many individuals, consumes a great deal of resources in vendor cost for support and staff time, and cannot be conducted often. Moreover, in the current crisis management environment, most training is conducted through discussion-based tabletop and paper-based scenario performance exercises. SimEOC was developed under the NSF-funded Ensayo Project. It is a web-based training simulator and research tool. SimEOC is built using MongoDB, Express.js, Angular and Node.js (the MEAN stack). A design overview and demonstration will be provided.

Download a PDF of the Ensayo Project's slides

Questions asked about Ensayo Project (answered in the video)

If you want to try out the gateway or have further questions, email gmadey AT nd DOT edu

• Can anyone get an account for the SimEOC and do the exercises?
• Please comment on the development process....
• Who would configure these exercises? How do you add new facilities related to emergency management?
• When did collaboration with CRC begin? how was the broader development team scoped and organized?
• Has this system been used in a real training situation?
• Did CRC have enough visibility at ND that you knew to reach out? Otherwise, how did you learn of them?

Spatial Portal for Analysis of Climatic Effects on Species (SPACES)
Presented by Dilkushi de Alwis Pitts, University of Cambridge

Abstract: To deal with escalating environmental shifts caused by climate change and other factors, ecologists are increasingly called upon to make risk assessment decisions about affected natural resources. As a result, there is a rapidly growing need for niche modeling of species projections to guide management decisions and activities related to intervention.

A number of software applications exist for carrying out fundamental niche modeling, but they present several problems for users, including distinct approaches to algorithms, data, and outputs, among others. The openModeller software was created to address these concerns by providing transparent, open-source tools under a common architecture.

SPACES builds on openModeller to manage for biologists the complication of running niche models, including data formatting and the complexities of the modeled systems. SPACES has endeavored to resolve the issues mentioned above by obtaining, handling, and storing the large quantities of data that niche models require, processing the data in a user-controlled way, and presenting the results in convenient formats. Through SPACES, extensive, quality spatial data are made available alongside species data and a variety of niche models that can be executed, analyzed, and compared—all through a common Web browser interface, designed to support a virtual scientific community and share the results of research.

Questions asked about SPACES Project (answered in the video)

If you want to try out the gateway or have further questions, email kad49 AT cam DOT ac DOT uk

• Does SPACES use HPC to run jobs? If yes, which one(s)?
• Are all the output spatial raster data? Otherwise, how to do map algebra on vector data? Where does map algebra happen, in user's browser or a backend server? If latter, how to manage the computation?
• What does it cost to add a new model algorithm? How much automation has been done to speed it up?
• How do other researchers put their algorithms into SPACES portal?