DHS Awards Contract for Coordinated Emergency Response to Charles River Analytics

Aug. 11, 2011 - PRLog -- Charles River Analytics, a developer of intelligent systems solutions, received a follow-on contract from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a Precision Information Environment for Coordinated Emergency Support (PIECES). PIECES is part of an effort by DHS to develop tightly-integrated collaborative work environments that help teams of emergency responders share and manipulate data sources.

During an emergency, staff from different fields and jurisdictions must collaborate at several distributed disaster sites while commanders in emergency operations centers (EOCs) monitor and manage relief efforts from a distance. The number of personnel and various means of communication used contribute to gaps between the available technology and what emergency responders need. The DHS is bringing together personnel in academia, government, and industry to develop components that target these gaps; as an industry partner, Charles River is developing visualization and communication components with PIECES.

Mr. J. Alex Godwin, Scientist at Charles River, explained: “PIECES will provide critical data from multiple sources and communications channels through interfaces that can be tailored to the job-specific demands of emergency personnel: firefighters, police, and other rescue workers can access the information they need in real time. Perhaps more importantly, PIECES will allow them to easily share this information in situations where collaboration across agencies and jurisdictions is vital.”

For more information on PIECES or other projects, visit www.cra.com.

About Charles River Analytics: Since 1983, Charles River Analytics has been delivering intelligent systems that transform our customers' data into mission-relevant tools and solutions to support critical assessment and decision-making. Charles River continues to grow its technology, customer base, and strategic alliances through research and development programs for the DoD and the Intelligence Community, addressing a broad spectrum of mission areas and functional domains, including: sensor and image processing, situation assessment and decision aiding, human systems integration, and cyber analytics. These efforts have resulted in a series of successful products that support continued growth in our core R&D contracting business, as well as the commercial sector.