Throughout my academic and professional journey thus far, I have discovered that what drives me the most is mission-driven work that has a legitimate real-world impact. This project is precisely that, through developing a machine learning model to assess the building damage caused by natural disasters. This project fits me perfectly in its capabilities to develop my skills, pushing me to grow while having a meaningful impact.
Research and Professional Skills to be Developed
As a cyber-criminology major, my skill set is verified to be spread out in the sense that we are required to cover a wide array of topics, including programming, digital forensics, criminogenic theory, cybersecurity, and much more. So far, my research has tapped into the criminology side of my major, such as my digital forensics DIS and my undergraduate thesis comparing online and offline sex offenders. I am excited that this IDEA Grant allows me to utilize and sharpen my major’s computer science component and emergency management certificate. Another way in which I am challenged is through the use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), otherwise known as drones. Before this summer, I had no expertise in this area, so this is an exciting way to develop this new skill set and use it for future endeavors.
Professionally, this project will undoubtedly sharpen my project management, communication, intrinsic motivation, and collaboration skills. I will devote much focus and time to it throughout this summer. However, I must balance my many obligations outside this IDEA Grant project, such as three jobs, online summer courses, and furthering my Honors in the Major research. Maintaining the self-motivation necessary for a successful Summer semester will require remarkable tact and dedication.
Resource Usage
Regarding resource usage at Florida State University, I have already strongly tapped into the faculty expertise within the Emergency Management and Homeland Security Program (EMHS), where my faculty director is. For example, one of the ways we gathered data to analyze was through the EMHS cloud repository, which contains satellite imagery from everything the emergency management faculty at FSU has responded to over the past decade. This ultimately supplied us with hundreds of Nadir images to use and analyze. Beyond FSU, I am continually researching government and academic repositories that could prove beneficial, such as NOAA’s Arial imagery.
Areas for Improvement
Given where we’re at with the project right now, our most significant area for improvement is acquiring the images on which we can train our models. Though we received the cloud repository from the EMHS team, the photos present are only from a top view. For our YOLO model, we are searching for images that capture the sides of buildings and a closer view of the roof. I had spent quite some time contacting emergency managers throughout Florida to inquire about taking images of their buildings and recording the overhead via drone, but this proved incredibly difficult. Eventually, I connected correctly and collaborated with Danny Glover, Director of Emergency Management in Perry. He provided me with the address of damaged buildings throughout Taylor County, but getting what I needed proved much more difficult than anticipated.
For example, one of the addresses sent me to an abandoned hospital, which was cool to explore, but it was nearly impossible to get what I needed out of it fully. The building was so huge I could not comprehend its entirety; much was overrun by nature, and I could not get the drone at a high enough altitude to properly record the roof. This will be a significant hurdle for us, though I am not concerned. We have made substantial progress on other fronts, and so long as we give this the attention it necessitates, I feel confident in the success of this project.
Conclusion
This project feels like a natural progression for my academic and professional path. It is the synthesis of my interests in public service, data science, and emergency management, challenging me to combine a wide range of skills to achieve success. I am eager to see how this will push me outside of my comfort zone and what will result from the months of hard work that will ensue.
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