Be it high winds and utility outages, local flooding, or an active shooter, when disaster strikes, multiple agencies and non-government organizations respond. The cutting-edge technologies, multifaceted logistics and collaborative efforts required to ensure optimum coordination of that response will be on full display next week during the Public Safety Interoperability Institute 2022 (Interop’22), set for May 2-6 at Disaster City® on the Texas A&M University campus and hosted by the Texas A&M Internet2 Technology Evaluation Center (ITEC).
Interop’22 will feature a workshop, exercise and sold-out technology expo that organizers say collectively aim to identify and exercise best practices and technologies to support wireless communications and coordination between and among responding agencies and organizations, no matter how challenging the circumstances. The Institute is sponsored by Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fiber, FirstNet by AT&T, T-Mobile, Airbus, and Mobility 4 Public Safety.
This year’s Institute is focused on six technology themes illustrated through three different exercise scenarios, including a hurricane with loss of commercial communications, an active shooter scenario, and a local flood event scenario. The technology themes being discussed at the workshop and exercised relate to Mission Critical Push to Talk, Federated Identity Credentialing and Access Management (ICAM), Inter-jurisdictional Messaging, SAFECOM Information Sharing Framework (ISF), Drone Video Sharing, and Next Generation 911 and Public Safety Broadband Network Interoperability.
Interop’22 is a collaborative workshop and exercise planned in partnership with agencies and organizations from throughout Texas and the United States. Previously known as the Winter Institute, ITEC renamed Interoperability Institute to better reflect the focus on achieving seamless communications between response agencies. Texas A&M ITEC’s planning partners for the 2022 event include the Texas Military Department, Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas A&M University Police, US Department of Homeland Security, Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service, Harris County Texas, Texas Division of Emergency Management, FirstNet Authority, Brazos County 911 District and American Red Cross.
For additional information about the Institute, including the full agenda and speaker profiles, visit the Interop’22 website.
About ITEC: The Texas A&M Internet2 Technology Evaluation Center, a center within the Academy for Advanced Telecommunications and Learning Technologies, was established by the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents in 2004 as an integral part of the research agenda at Texas A&M University. Operating under a Memorandum of Understanding with Internet2, ITEC’s focus is Real Time Communications (RTC). ITEC began by working on emergency communications projects but has since evolved into one of the premier emergency communications academic research centers in the world. To learn more, visit the Internet2 Technology Evaluation Center website.