ROME, N.Y. (WUTR/WFXV/WPNY) – FuzeHub is a not-for-profit organization providing manufacturers – from startups to medium-sized companies – with access to a network of industry experts and resources.
And they also just recently awarded grant funding to 10 collaborative projects through its ‘Jeff Lawrence Innovation Fund.’
One of those recipients is Mohawk Valley Edge and ANDRO Computational Solutions – who received $50,000.
With this funding, ANDRO Computational Solutions, of Rome, in collaboration with Mohawk Valley Edge, is introducing ‘SecondNet’ – a new concept in intelligent, coordinated emergency management for rapid alert and response to mitigate active threats.
“When you talk about delays, latency, people not getting there in time, it’s usually attributed to the lack of communications infrastructure,” explained Dr. Andrew Drozd, President & Chief Researcher, ANDRO Computational Solutions.
“That seems to be the common denominator, so that’s something that we can fill, and again, it’s repurposing military technology for a civilian environment.”
As Dr. Drozd said, this technology was originally utilized by the military, but when speaking with teacher friends, realized it could also, potentially, be used in school systems – to protect against in school threats.
“With the rise in school threats, that was sort of a logical question,” said Dr. Drozd.
“So, we started thinking about that last year and said, you know, we actually could because there’s a particular technology that we have called SPEARLink.”
The SPEARLink radio provides broadband coverage – where you need it, when you need it.
“The idea is that you want to have broad coverage 24/7, basically whenever you need it, so that when an emergency arises, you can communicate two ways – where the emergency is taking place, and also informing the administrators, the school principal and the law enforcement and first responders on the outside,” he said.
“If you can create this kind of a network with widespread connectivity, this provides that rapid response capability that’s often been lacking.”
Existing networks currently have to depend on cell towers, internet and Wi-Fi to function.
“If that infrastructure goes down or becomes unavailable, our system is available to you,” explained Dr. Drozd.
“And especially if you’re in a remote area where you have sparse broadband coverage – that’s exactly what our SPEARLink technology does.”
And as for the grant funding, ANDRO and MV Edge will be using it to implement a “pilot program” – to actually test this technology in schools.
“We want to bring our gear in, install it, come up with the use cases that we want to show and tell and demonstrate, and then actually fire it up and show it to people,” he said.
“Basically, collect metrics, collect information about how fast this works, the efficacy of the overall tech technology and where it might be approved.”
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