Nicolas J. LaLone

Aurorasaurus: A citizen science platform for viewing and reporting the aurora

A new, citizen science based, aurora observing and reporting platform has been developed with the primary aim of collecting auroral observations made by the general public to further improve the modeling of the aurora. In addition, the real-time ability of this platform facilitates the combination of citizen science observations with auroral oval models to improve auroral visibility nowcasting. Aurorasaurus provides easily understandable aurora information, basic gamification, and real-time location-based notification of verified aurora activity to engage citizen scientists. The Aurorasaurus project is one of only a handful of space weather citizen science projects and can provide useful results for the space weather and citizen science communities. Early results are promising with over 2,000 registered users submitting over 1,000 aurora observations and verifying over 1,700 aurora sightings posted on Twitter.

Mapping auroral activity with Twitter

Twitter is a popular, publicly-accessible, social media service that has proven useful in mapping large-scale events in real-time. In this study, for the first time, the use of Twitter as a measure of auroral activity is investigated. Peaks in the number of aurora-related tweets are found to frequently coincide with geomagnetic disturbances (detection rate of 91%). Additionally, the number of daily aurora-related tweets is found to strongly correlate with several auroral strength proxies (ravg ≈ 0.7). An examination is made of the bias for location and time of day within Twitter data, and a first order correction of these effects is presented. Overall, the results suggest that Twitter can provide both specific details about an individual aurora and accurate real-time indication of when, and even from where, an aurora is visible.

Scaling 911 Texting for Large-Scale Disasters: Developing Practical Technical Innovations for Emergency Management at Public Universities

In a mass crisis event, Emergency Operation Centers EOC cannot meet the demand of thousands of individuals trying to alert or request emergency services. However, new technology, driven by the right policy and tested for strengths and weaknesses in a data rich, semi-predictable environment, can help to address current PSAP limitations. In this paper the authors present a system that aims to provide real-time data to emergency managers during a crisis event in such an environment-a college town during a football game or similarly attended event. The system is designed to accept, sort, triage and deliver hundreds of direct text messages from populations engaged in a crisis to emergency management staff who can respond. They posit that when a municipal or county-level EOC is cross-housed with a University EOC, multiple opportunities for development and funding occur. Universities can provide the technical expertise, funding, staffing, development and testing for systems that serve the EOC. Most importantly, Universities also provide disaster-like events that can be used as proxies for unpredictable mass crises during which more valid and reliable testing can occur. The authors present preliminary findings from a text-to-emergency service currently in use by Penn State University Athletics.

Harnessing Twitter and Crowdsourcing to Augment Aurora Forecasting

The aurora borealis and aurora australis are beautiful space weather driven events whose sighting is typically based on luck given that forecasting is not spatially or temporally precise. To help increase the accuracy and timeliness of auroral forecasting, we have designed a multi-faceted system called Aurorasaurus. This system allows crisis management specialists to test reactions to rare event notifications, space weather scientists to get direct sighting information of auroras (complete with pictures), and science education researchers to evaluate the impact of educational materials about the aurora and the physics surrounding this unique phenomenon. Through manual tweet verification and directly reported aurora borealis or aurora australis sightings, everyday users help make space weather and aurora forecasting more accurate.

Augmented Tabletop Games Workshop

This workshop gathers researchers and practitioners interested in augmented tabletop games: physical games that include digital augmentation. Participants will compile ways of knowing for this unique research space and share their methods of research, demonstrating, where possible, through a research gaming and prototyping session. Post-workshop, we will assemble an online compendium for findings, which will include video sketches recorded during the workshop and an annotated bibliography.

Embracing human noise as resilience indicator: twitter as power grid correlate

Abstract There are typically two approaches for measuring disaster resilience: technically dynamic measures produced by sensors attached to physical objects and socially static metrics that engage demographic indicators within a given geographic location. Although these approaches allow resilience to be represented before and after disruption, it can be difficult to measure resilient behavior during an event. We propose that social media data can be used to nowcast the ongoing state of critical infrastructure during a disaster. Through an analysis of tweets made during Hurricane Sandy and power outage data obtained after the event, we find that tweets that mention power, utility, or electricity were correlated with loss of power. We conclude with a discussion of barriers to realizing this concept.

The Spaces Between: Using Play to Situate the Social and the Technical in a Single Space

My work situates play as a space where social and technical spaces collide. By engaging play as a space of convergence, it is possible to observe social and technical objects concurrently without aggregation, reduction, or supposition. I am a 4th year PhD Candidate in the midst of data-gathering. The driving force for my research begins with the imbalance of inquiry afforded to social and technical spaces as they relate to the design of socio-technical systems. My research will provide designers and researchers a means through which to dispense with forcefully separated social and technical spaces; thus allowing more complexity and simplicity in design.