When Hurricane Maria hit, the island went nearly dark, with 85 percent of above-ground telephone and internet cables down as a result of the aftermath. Without proper telecommunication, millions of Puerto Ricans struggled to rebuild their lives.
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How does a city stay connected after a hurricane hits?
After Puerto Rico’s power grid was devastated in Hurricane Maria, a team sought a way to preserve connectivity in future disasters.
The team behind Project OWL was inspired to find a solution to Puerto Rico’s lack of power and communication, which is integral in helping survivors and coordinating evacuations. They created the “clusterduck,” a mesh network that uses low-frequency WiFi devices to quickly reestablish connectivity when a disaster area goes off the grid.
Project OWL won the inaugural Call for Code Challenge in 2018 and is now deploying their technology through the IBM Code and Response initiative.
“The OWL takes in a lot of data and uses technologies like IBM Watson to help crunch that information and present back a really clear operating picture of just what’s going on during an incident to help the people who need to respond to the incident,” says Bryan Knouse, CEO and cofounder of Project OWL.
Learn more about how you can participate in the Code and Response initiative.