Cameras, robotic mules could help battle Ebola in West Africa

Posted by admin on Nov 23, 2014 at 9:51 pm America/Chicago

Researchers are working on technology that could be shipped to West Africa to help fight the Ebola outbreak as soon as a few months from now, while also looking ahead to bigger plans to combat any disease outbreak. "Absolutely. This is something we can do," said Robin Murphy, a professor of computer science and engineering at Texas A&M University and director of the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue said Wednesday. "There are lots of things we found that can go right now … but this will continue to motivate research in human-robotic interactions and how to understand how you design a new technology, how you test a new technology, how you factor in cultural context, how to factor in the targeted environments and how you train people to use them, she said." Tech researchers from around the U.S. met with health care and aid workers nearly two weeks ago to discuss what kinds of technology, such as robotics, big data analysis or communications, could help fight the Ebola epidemic. Now plans are in the works to get the technological aid where it's needed. The Nov. 7 workshop was livestreamed across locations at Worcester Polytechnic University, Texas A&M, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the University of California at Berkeley. During the meetings, aid workers were able to explain to the researchers the obstacles they faced in using certain types of technology. Nothing can be simply shipped to a treatment center in a foreign country however. All proposals from U.S. companies to send technology to areas hit by the Ebola outbreak must go through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which administers civilian foreign aid efforts. USAID has put out a call for proposals, and submissions are due by Dec. 1. Murphy said she's expecting the agency to quickly act on some of the proposals so that some of the technologies can be shipped to West Africa early in the new year. While researchers are looking at short-term answers for Ebola, they're also focused on coming up with bigger, more complex systems that can be ready for outbreaks of other deadly diseases. For more information, check out computerworld.com