Mary-Louise Hoffman
IBM and the Philippines’ department of science and technology have collaborated to build a central hub for coordinating emergency response and relief efforts in the event of a natural disaster in the Philippines.
The Quezon City-based Intelligent Operations Center was built through the company’s impact grant program and will work to help Philippine government agencies with disaster planning and management, IBM said Thursday.
“In the wake of Typhoon Yolanda, IBM teams in the U.S. and Philippines recognized both the enormity of the crisis and the opportunity to provide cutting edge technology,” said Mariels Almeda Winhoffer, president and country general manager at IBM Philippines.
The IOC features an integrated communications system designed to provide advance extreme weather alerts as well as gather information about casualties and infrastructures in the event of a disaster, according to IBM.
IBM also designed the technology to analyze disparate sources of critical information for Philippine first responders and emergency personnel.
“These solutions will address the government’s need for better decision-making support and at the same time, provide a starting point to better manage future responses,” Winhoffer added.
