Funding: National Science Foundation Grant

Work in Process Website: www.community-connect.fiu.edu

Team: Shahin Vassigh (Principal Investigator), Biayna Bogosian (Co-Principal Investigator), Shu-Ching Chen (Co-Principal Investigator), John Stuart (Co-Principal Investigator)

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of our public and private socio-spatial systems during emergencies. In the initial stages of the pandemic, there was a surge in demand for information and Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) as well as sanitization tools. The pandemic made it difficult for caregivers and businesses to acquire the necessary supplies to adhere to safety regulations and protect people in the wake of this crisis. When supply chains slowed down due to lockdowns, this situation was even further exacerbated, leading to global shortages from most large suppliers of PPE. At the local level, communities' ability to locate necessary resources and gather appropriate and relevant information became increasingly difficult. The pandemic revealed the importance of supporting business networks and the value of disseminating quick and accurate access to critical information. It also highlighted the lack of distributed coordination mechanisms for connecting citizens in both local and global scales.

Our interdisciplinary funded project, Community-Connect, addresses these issues in a novel AI-powered platform to meet the sustainability needs of communities for the COVID-19 pandemic as well as for other unforeseen disasters. The project major goals are to: 1) provide a networking tool that facilitates communications between suppliers or resource owners and people who need their products, resource seekers, 2) ensure the safety of products through an automated process of validation and approval by appropriate authorities and based on high standards, 3) support and enhance interactions and discussions among community members with pertinent information, educational materials, and guidelines, and 4) demonstrate how this research compliments contemporary smart city conversations focused on the integration of networked technologies for facilitating efficient methods of addressing local socio-environmental and economic challenges while improving city services.