Anritsu Co. announces it was a sponsor of the third annual Disaster Management Initiative (DMI), held at Carnegie Mellon University, Silicon Valley (CMUSV) on November 4-5 at the university’s campus in Moffett Field, CA, in the heart of Silicon Valley. As part of the sponsorship, David Witkowski, senior product manager, Anritsu, led a session that focused on digital radio technologies for public safety, government, and infrastructure users.

This year’s two-day invitational workshop showcased technologies that have the potential to improve community resilience in preparation, response and recovery from emergencies of all kinds. Community resilience in the face of an emergency situation, increasingly, depends on survivable access to the Internet. Access to health and banking records stored in the cloud will be essential in an emergency, as well. These issues were addressed during the workshop.

“The DMI has established itself as one of the pre-eminent research efforts focused on applying cutting-edge technology to solve real-world challenges in disaster management and emergency response, such as those currently being encountered in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Anritsu has been, and remains committed to, developing test solutions that sustain and improve the Land Mobile Radio communications systems used by public safety, first responders, military and other government organizations. Our expertise in the testing of these networks supported the overall objectives of this year’s workshop and the ongoing efforts of the DMI,” said Witkowski. 

Witkowski discussed the proliferation of new digital radio technologies and the challenges they have created to the National Emergency Communications Plan and SAFECOM interoperability vision set forth by the Department of Homeland Security and federal/state agencies. He also offered insight into what must be done to ensure a continuum of communications across levels of government, between law enforcement jurisdictions, and among infrastructure response teams.

Martin Griss, director of DMI at CMUSV, deemed the workshop a success. “Disaster recovery affects all of us. Whether in the home or workplace, when a disaster hits, businesses and people need to be ready to react. In Silicon Valley, we have the technology and resources to better prepare for the next Big One. But we need to work together to develop a plan for a smarter, more resilient community. Once again, our intensive workshop that featured speakers such as David engaged key public safety and emergency response leaders to help achieve that goal.”

DMI was established at CMUSV in 2009 with a mission to provide open and interoperable next-generation technical solutions for all-hazard multi-jurisdictional disasters. The DMI is a center of excellence for research, development, evaluation, advocacy and dissemination of such technologies, solutions and approaches.