Media contact: Yvonne Taunton
Nasim Uddin, Ph.D.At the 2019 Winter Simulation Conference, a team including Nasim Uddin, Ph.D., professor and graduate program director for the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, won a “Best of Conference” award for their paper on sensor-aided simulation in disaster management applications.
Uddin collaborated with Jason Rife of Tufts University and Samarth Swarup of the University of Virginia on the research.
Titled “Who goes there? Using an agent-based simulation for tracking population movement,” the paper presented the team’s method to apply simulations to tracking a live event. The methodology used allowed for close tracking of the population over time in a study of an evacuation via roads. The team intends to submit a proposal to the National Science Foundation and the Department of Homeland Security based on the paper.
As for the future applications of the methodology, Uddin is hopeful.
“When implemented with further research, this will enable a socio-technological system that will guide disaster response, evacuation planning or even rerouting people coming from stadiums after games,” Uddin said. “For the first time, we’ll adapt synthetic population models for real-time application, which will aid first responders and help recommend action to survivors to reduce risk from persistent threats.”
Hosted in National Harbor, Maryland, the 2019 Winter Simulation Conference addressed a broad range of individual and societal risks by using simulations. The conference highlighted the latest techniques and how simulations can be used for better decision-making.
Along with his recent accomplishments at the 2019 Winter Simulation Conference, Uddin recently became the editor-in-chief of the American Society of Civil Engineers Natural Hazards Review Journal. He also serves on the editorial board of the ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems.