NIST Prize Challenge Seeks Innovative Incident-Command Dashboards for Public Safety

(NIST: Boulder, CO) -- In an emergency, first responders need to track assets, personnel, and other vital information in an unfolding situation. A new NIST prize challenge encourages developers to improve these incident command dashboards.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is launching a new prize competition to advance incident command dashboard technologies that would allow for real-time tracking of assets, personnel, and objects of interest during emergency scenarios.

Through the Command Dashboard Integrating Next-Gen, or CommanDING, Tech Challenge, NIST will bring together first responders, video analytics, and indoor localization professionals, public safety experts, and participants to advance and enhance the role of incident command dashboards for public safety.

Challenge participants will leverage next-generation technology such as 3D laser scans of buildings, indoor location tracking technology, video analytics, internet of things, and personal area data networks in order to learn how to integrate them to offer high-functioning, user-friendly incident command dashboards for first responders.

Participants may submit dashboards designed in virtual reality, augmented reality, web-based, mobile, etc., but must ensure that the dashboard is accessible for use in a mobile environment by first responders. 

Credit: American Tobacco Campus

The competition is now accepting entries and will have multiple stages running through April 2023.

“The CommanDING Tech Challenge will encourage innovation for developing user-friendly, next-generation interfaces designed for and with public safety, while showcasing the latest capabilities of public safety communications research areas like IoT, analytics, and location-based services,” says Dereck Orr, chief of NIST’s Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) division. “We can’t wait to see the innovators’ concepts and prototypes for public safety incident command dashboards.” 

Up to $1 million will be awarded in prizes throughout four stages of the challenge. Prize recipients will be determined by a panel of judges, assisted by a team of subject matter experts, through each stage of the competition. 

The CommanDING Tech Challenge is hosted by NIST and managed by Freelancer.com, which operates as a freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace, in collaboration with LMI, a consultancy with expertise in advanced analytics, digital services, and logistics. Several entities are also partnering with NIST for key components of the challenge, including the University of Houston, the University of Memphis, and the First Responder Network Authority.

NIST encourages all user interface/user experience (UI/UX) developers and innovators to bring their ideas to this competition. To learn about eligibility requirements, visit challenge.gov, and for additional information about the challenge and to register, visit the 2022 CommanDING Tech Challenge website.

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