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Research domains - IT4People

The basic goal of the project in activities related to the development of the information society (IT4People) is to carry out research and development of IT for the following two key areas, represented by research teams:

• IT4Disaster&Traffic Management (Information Technology for Disaster and Traffic Management): IT for modelling and management of crisis situations, monitoring and intelligent management of traffic.
• IT4Economy (Information Technology for Economy): IT for financial simulations and agile logistical computations.

The VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava is involved in the long-term development of sophisticated tools based on internet technologies and enabling the modelling, monitoring and management of crisis situations caused by natural disasters. Research projects funded mainly by the Moravian-Silesian Region have resulted in the product FLOREON (FLOods REcognition On the Net), which currently represents a unique system enabling the modelling and prediction of the development of ongoing flood situations and the monitoring of current traffic situations using GSM networks and GPS technologies. As part of this system, additional modules are being developed to address tasks related to modelling the spread of pollution, fires and the effects of ecological disasters. Internet technologies play a key role in the architecture of such a system from the viewpoint of integrating data sources and making the results available to citizens, crisis teams and integrated rescue services; for this reason, it is essential to have a powerful supercomputer centre making it possible to run a wide range of highly demanding mathematical models. A key requirement is that this capacity should be available in real-time, because all of the above-mentioned crisis situations require response times of minutes, or hours at the very maximum.

In addition to ‘classic’ numerical algorithms, research and development is also planned in the field of knowledge methods using the principles of case-based reasoning, providing the ability to search databases for records of similar crisis situations and subsequently to generate solutions to newly occurring problems. Logistic issues focus on the research and development of agile logistic conceptions applicable in chaotic market conditions involving the individualization of customer demands, transport and ecological restrictions, and the globalization of business and enterprise. Here too, a key role is played by computational methods based on the principles of expert systems, neuron networks, process simulation and logistic flows. Research will also focus on issues of automatic identification using RFID (radio frequency identification) carried out in real conditions, and its integration with information systems for purposes of company management.

Benefits of IT4People

The modern world is characterized by the massive use of information technology in almost all areas of life. Today there are practically no companies, industrial manufacturers or institutions that do not use IT. Citizens, and society as a whole, stand slightly aside from this wave. General public use of information technologies focuses mainly on the transfer of news and messages, multimedia, electronic commerce and similar, mainly leisure-oriented applications. However, of key importance for the future development of society is ensuring public security and safety, and providing help in emergencies and crisis situations. Here, information technology has not yet fulfilled its potential. Although the Czech Republic – and many other European countries – are annually hit by floods, fires and ecological problems, often causing financial losses amounting to tens of billions of crowns, there currently exist no effective tools that are able to prepare citizens and the responsible authorities for such events and situations, or to provide timely solutions. The aim of the IT4People part of the project is to address this shortcoming. The project will create and develop powerful tools for predicting the extent and location of flooding zones several hours in advance, and for identifying traffic crisis situations and re-routing traffic in such a way as to avoid causing the same crisis at another location. The tools for such solutions are represented by quantities of data (which must be gathered and stored in data storages) plus effective algorithms able to process this data and generate information necessary for effective and qualified decision-making. All of these issues require long-term targeted research and development focusing on fields such as computational mathematics, intelligent systems, software engineering, internet technologies, and distributed applications.