A critical component of community-based disaster preparedness (CBDP) is a local resource database of suppliers providing physical, information and human resources for use in disaster response. Maintenance of such a database can become a collaborative responsibility among community-based non-governmental organizations (NGOs), public, and private organizations in the community. In addition to mobilizing resources, this process raises awareness within the community and aids in assessing local knowledge and resources. This paper presents the results of a pilot study in implementing a community-based resource database through collaboration with local American Red Cross chapters and public and private community organizations. The design of the resource database is described. The resource database is accessible both using the Internet and offline using laptops and handheld PDAs to support disaster response. The study concludes that CBDP is strengthened through a combination of appropriate information technology and collaborative relationships between NGOs and community-based organizations.
Case studies are a common method for teaching professions such as law and business. At Miami University, we use case studies to teach software engineering by holding a "Senior Challenge" as part of our senior-level software engineering course. The goal is to give the students experience studying, analyzing, and proposing solutions to a real-life informationtechnology related business problem. The Challenge concludes with a presentation of their findings to a jury of industry professionals including some from the company that wrote the case. The Challenge is structured to teach the students how to analyze a business problem for business and technical objectives, how to describe and defend candidate solutions, and how to effectively present their findings both orally and in writing. This is a difficult project that provides students with experience working with real and significant information-technology problems and in understanding the business impact of their technical decisions.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.