Emergency Communication and Alert Equipment
for State University System of Florida
and Florida Community College Campuses

This website is intended to provide information that will be useful to Florida Universities and Community Colleges, as well as to other institutions who are responding to the need for solutions that will enhance the security of individual public college and university campuses, specifically by improving the ability to alert and communicate with students, faculty, staff, and all personnel on the campus in the event of an emergency situation.

The University of Central Florida (UCF) has been conducting research on Intra-Campus Emergency Mass Notification (EMN) Communication systems within the Florida state universities and community colleges since 2005.  As part of this ongoing work, the UCF team has performed live demonstrations of effective All-Hazards EMN solutions for campuses, and is developing a comprehensive testbed for EMN systems, which will be utilized in future demonstrations as well as in research and education activities. The UCF team is led by Dr. Lei Wei, Assoc. Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering [(407) 823-5098, leiwei@mail.ucf.edu] and supported by Dr. Jim Pearson, Special Asst. to the VP for Research and UCF coordinator for homeland security programs [(407-823-6858, jpearson@mail.ucf.edu]. The research has been funded to date by the US Department of Homeland Security, Office of Domestic Preparedness FY05-06 funds assigned to the Higher Education Subcommittee of the Florida State Working Group for Domestic Preparedness, by the UCF Office of Research & Commercialization, by hardware funding from Prepare Florida, and by donations from Madahcom, Inc. The first stage research final report can be found via the link below and is also at the website of the Gubernatorial Task Force for University Campus Safety.

2009 RFP to Florida Universities and Colleges for Funding of Emergency Notification System (ENS) Equipment

Q&A on 2009 RFP

Reference documents:

• Florida’s Domestic Security Strategy (August 2004)
• Final Report on Study and Demonstration of Emergency Communication Systems for Florida and Community College Campuses (UCF; February 2006)
• Report of equipment demo at UCF_07-27-07.pdf  As part of the ongoing research work at UCF, the UCF team performed a live demonstration of several effective all-hazards EMN solutions for campuses.
• UCF Applied Security Technologies
• State University System of Florida Consortium on Homeland Security  Realizing Homeland Security Technology needs, the SUS-FL leadership formed the State University System of Florida Consortium on Homeland Security to enhance cooperation and better focus R&D efforts. Consortium members and associates cooperate to form project partnerships in the pursuit of technology development strategies that meet Florida's and U.S. homeland security requirements.
• State University System Emergency Management Task Force  The purpose of the Emergency Management Task Force (EMTF) is to develop recommendations to the Florida Board of Governors (BOG) for a more comprehensive system approach to meeting the emergency management challenges of our public universities.
• National Incident Management System (NIMS) (March 2004)
• State NIMS Integration, Version 1
• National Academic Consortium for Homeland Security
• Potential campus EmergComm vendors list_03-09.pdf (Note: this list is provided for information only. The list is not represented as complete. No endorsement or recommendation is implied. Vendors – to have your company considered for addition to this list, contact Dr. James Pearson or Dr. Lei Wei – see below)
• Awards made in 2006 to Florida Universities and Community Colleges for campus emergency communications equipment and services.
• Alertus Beacons – These units have multiple ways to immediately alert people of an emergency.  For full information, including a free webinar on Alertus Beacons, click here.
• Funding awards made in 2009 to Florida Universities and Community Colleges for campus emergency communications equipment and services.

Contacts:

Technical Topics, including the Final Report on Study and Demonstration

Dr. Lei Wei
Assoc. Professor
407-823-5098
lei@ee.ucf.edu

Overall project, process, or related topics:

Dr. James Pearson
Special Asst. to the VP for Research
Homeland Security Coordinator
407-451-2199
jpearson@mail.ucf.edu

Contracts and proposal topics:

Ms. Mary Stanley
Office of Research & Commercialization
University of Central Florida
12201 Research Parkway, Suite 501
Orlando, FL 32826-3246
(407)823-2836 
mstanley@mail.ucf.edu