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Projects

Architectural Design Research: Integrating Security in the Public Realm

This project addresses the challenge of using building design to improve security in soft targets and crowded places without turning the location into a “hard target”, fortified with oppressive security measures. This research aims to enhance human safety while preserving open and welcoming environments by identifying cost-effective and humane design strategies inherent to the design of public places. The primary objective is to develop new protocols for the physical assessment and design of safer public spaces, such as schools or transportation hubs. The developed guidelines will help building designers and managers make smart decisions about design—using the layout of a space to allow or inhibit movement and designing for visibility by people and sensors— to make the space less vulnerable to threats without making them closed off or feel intimidating.

Dynamic Digital Twins for Secure and Smart Civic Space

This project addresses the lack of effective digital twin technology for identifying and mitigating security risks at soft targets and crowded places. The challenges to making digital twins, which are virtual representations of physical assets, environments or systems that can be used to simulate their behavior to better understand how they work, a practical solution for enhancing security include data integration issues, limited real-time monitoring, lack of human digital twin teaming, and high costs. The primary objective is to design, experiment with, and evaluate scalable and effective methods for creating dynamic digital twins of soft targets and crowded places that enhance security by monitoring environments in real-time, predicting threats, and integrating crowd behavior models to mitigate vulnerabilities.

Real-Time Crowd and Attacker Forecasting for Risk Assessment and Threat Mitigation

This project aims to address the challenges posed by architectural design changes during the design phase and post-occupancy, which can significantly alter how crowds behave during emergencies. Changes in building layout, exit placements, and overall design can lead to confusion, bottlenecks, or even panic during evacuations, increasing risk during disasters. Current tools are inadequate for evaluating the impact of alternative architectural design features or physical alterations to existing structures on crowd flow. The primary objective is to integrate human behavior modeling with architectural design and analysis using digital twins, which are virtual models of physical locations, environments, or systems. This integrated approach will more effectively guide the design and modifications of buildings to influence, promote, and enhance the desired crowd behavior during emergencies, such as active shooter scenarios and bomb threats.

Impact of Architectural Design on Emergency Behavior and Response During Active Shooter Incidents

This project seeks to understand how architectural design affects human behavior during emergencies, particularly during active shooter incidents. Using the information realized from analyzing human behavior in emergencies specifically related to architectural design elements, this research will address knowledge gaps in current crowd simulation tools, which fail to capture the complexity of human behavior in these critical situations.

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