San Diego supercomputer team backs firefighters in recent 'Horse' wildfires

Firefighters facing fast-spreading wildfires, especially in remote areas where communications and other resources are scarce, can now add "cyberinfrastructure" to their firefighting arsenals.

Such combined hardware and software proved useful in the recent "Horse Fire" in California's Cleveland National Forest, when experts from the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego, responded to the urgent request of state firefighters for quick and reliable wireless communication among widespread teams.

That communication was speedily provided by the High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network (HPWREN), a resource supported by the National Science Foundation and staffed by researchers at the SDSC, UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), and San Diego State University. Within a day, SDSC experts were on the scene, establishing high-speed wireless data links.

HPWREN teams are no strangers to wildfires and catastrophes, but this was the first time that vital communication lifelines used Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) technology – allowing wireless links from the Horse Fire command post to the Internet and to deployed firefighting teams.

Hans-Werner Braun, principal investigator on the program, and SIO seismologist Frank Vernon, co-principal investigator, lead the SDSC effort for HPWREN, and both recognize the value of cyberinfrastructure in responding to crises.

"Reliable communication is absolutely essential in emergencies and disasters," said Braun, "especially when response teams may be spread over a wide area, where some forms of communication aren't available or won't work. The wireless links to the Internet we provide through the HPWREN collaboration can keep everybody talking and responding effectively – a practical, lifesaving application of our research that we find especially gratifying."

Vernon agrees. "Although our primary roles are research and education, very important in themselves, we never forget that the ultimate aim of science, scholarship and study is improving people's lives – sometimes even saving lives."

To help support the firefighter's command post, the HPWREN team worked closely with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the U.S. Forest Service, Viejas tribal leaders, and the San Diego Sheriff's Department.

Source: University of California - San Diego

Related stories:

New data center architecture from commodity network elements
Computer scientists at the UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering have proposed a new way to build data centers that could save companies money and deliver more computing capability to end-users.
New Algorithm Significantly Boosts Routing Efficiency of Networks
(PhysOrg.com) -- A time-and-money-saving question shared by commuters in their cars and networks sharing ever-changing Internet resources is: "What's the best way to get from here to there?"
Wasps and bumble bees heat up, fly faster with protein-rich food
Good pollen makes bees hot, biologists at UC San Diego have found. Wasps warm up too when they find protein-rich meat, a separate experiment has shown.
Universal Power Adapter Offers Alternative to Wall Warts
When Doug Palmer realized he had forgotten his mobile phone adapter on a vacation in Mexico several years ago, the first thought that crossed his mind was, "There has to be a better way."
Exciton-based circuits eliminate a 'speed trap' between computing and communication signals
Particles called excitons that emit a flash of light as they decay could be used for a new form of computing better suited to fast communication, physicists at UC San Diego have demonstrated.
Space is 'current frontier' for engineer working on next-gen wireless technologies
Bhaskar Rao is a space explorer, though he is no astronaut. The electrical engineer from UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering explores the “space frontier” that has opened up with the emergence of MIMO (multiple input multiple output) technologies for wireless communications. In MIMO systems, both transmitters and receivers contain multiple antennae, which means that space – and not just time – is in play when it comes to signal processing strategies for increasing data rates, reliability, users served, and other parameters in wireless communications networks.
Blocking the effect of inflammation-causing cells lowered prostate cancer cells invasion
Recent studies have suggested an association between chronic inflammation and cancers of the prostate, colon, stomach and liver. Now scientists at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine report success in blocking an early step in metastasis of prostate cancer cells by interrupting the communication between the cancer cells and other cells that promote inflammation.
Researchers eliminate drug discovery bottleneck
Determining the structure of unknown natural compounds is a slow and expensive part of drug screening and development – but this may now change thanks to a new combination of experimental and computational protocols developed at the University of California, San Diego and presented at RECOMB 2008 (Research in Computational Molecular Biology) on March 31 in Singapore.

News discussion:

Technology news