Communications of the ACM
Rutgers Engineers Create Smartphone App to Cut Risk of Power Outages
A new smartphone app can help engineers respond to widespread power outages.
Credit: Janne Lindqvist
Rutgers University researchers have developed a smartphone app designed to help engineers respond to widespread power outages.
Rutgers professor Janne Lindqvist used funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation to research crowdsourcing in local communities, and took advantage of a project already underway in Warren Township, NJ. "The idea is basically simple. You have a smartphone app that walks you through documenting the hazard," Lindqvist says. "Users are prompted to take a photo of the problem, classify it, and verify the location provided by the phone's location-sensing capability."
The researchers also developed server software to capture, classify, and present the data.
The software presented the data in such an organized manner, Warren Township electric utilities services were able to correct all of the problems remaining from Superstorm Sandy before the 2014 hurricane season. By working with the township, the researchers learned various community processes are candidates for crowdsourcing, and that a well-designed, task-specific app can have a significant impact.
"This is a public policy innovation as well," Lindqvist notes. "When problems are clearly documented and presented to the utilities, they have to check the problems and deal with them."
From Rutgers Today
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