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2019

• Arranged a visit for Dr. Chittayong Surakitbanharn (Stanford University), one of the project collaborators, to come to Prairie View to give a seminar on  “The impact of new data streams on disaster decision making and community resilience” . He also met and interacted with faculty and students involved in the project.

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• Participated in the 2019 PVAMU Research Week and presented two posters (i) “Use of Mobile Apps for Disaster Communications in Under-served Communities:  Challenges and Opportunities”; and (ii) “Social Media Analytics and Reporting Toolkit for Disaster Management.” 

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• Hosted a one-day workshop/seminar for the fellows of the Bill Anderson Fund. For more information, click here.

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• Attended a workshop on Design Thinking for Resilience at Stanford University on May 2 & 3. The goal of the two-day event facilitated by the Stanford d. school was to clearly define the importance of data for resilience, the social impact, and identify how each academic partner and organization can contribute to a research agenda on Data for Resilience. Specifically, the workshop sought to (i) identify research themes, data sources, and stakeholders, (ii) build team cohesion to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration between meeting participants, and (iii) refine and convey the research mission to stakeholder groups and participants from the technology industry.

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• Attended the annual meeting with our collaborators at the VACCINE center, a DHS COE hosted at Purdue University. The meeting allowed us to have a one-on-one meeting with Dr. David Ebert (Director of the Center) during which, we discussed progress made thus far and brainstormed on additional future collaborative initiatives (especially with regards to curricula development). Dr. David Ebert is tentatively scheduled for a visit to PVAMU in October to give a talk.    

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• Attended the 16th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM) in Valencia, Spain held May 19-22, 2019 and presented at the poster session a paper titled “Social Media in Disaster Management: Exploring the Information Exchange Behavior in the Under-served Communities.”

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• Made a presentation on "Project Communication in a Cross-Cultural Virtual Environment: The role of Social Media" at the College of Business Seminar Series on April 26th

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• Made a presentation on "Project Communication in a Cross-Cultural Virtual Environment: The role of Social Media" at the College of Business Seminar Series on April 26th

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• Drs. Shahriari, Alam and Tandon made a presentation on "The Effect of auto industry scandal on shareholder wealth: do industry relationships affect the size of the wealth effect for supply-chain partners?" at the College of Business Seminar Series on April 26th

2018

• Presented a paper titled "The Role of Information Technology in Disaster Management" at the 2018 SWDSI Conference held in Albuquerque, New Mexico from March 7 - 10.

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• Presented a paper titled: “Social Media Analytics for Disaster Management” at the 2018 PVAMU Industry Day on October  2018. The PVAMU Industry Day a daylong event designed to provide an opportunity to people in the industry to interact with the University Community and to learn more about the innovative projects and capabilities of the University.   For more information, click here)

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• Hosted a three-member team from the Department of Homeland Security for a two-day working visit. The team also attended some of the PVAMU Industry Day related events.

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• Organized an hour long workshop on Excel Pivot Table Report for the College of Business faculty and staff in April.

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• Attended the 2018 Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence Summit, held May 30-31 at George Mason University – Arlington, VA. The COE Summit assembled some of the nation’s best academic, public, and private sector leaders to discuss strategies for advancing the mission of the Department of Homeland Security.  It featured an Innovation Showcase with exhibits and spotlight presentations highlighting research and solutions from all current U.S. DHS Centers of Excellence, various emeritus COEs and this year’s summit partners, Customs and Border Patrol, various FFRDCs and the Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOI).

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• Attended a workshop on Data Literacy for STEAM Curriculum  held June 21 & 22 in Tempe, Arizona organized by the Center for Accelerating Operational Efficiency (CAOE) – a Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence.  The main objective of the workshop was to train MSI faculty on establishing data literacy in STEAM curriculum with the use of data analytic tools, and the development of course materials for teaching data analytic tools.

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• Received approval for two new courses: Introduction to Crisis Informatics and Predictive Analytics in June. These two courses will also be part of the newly created Business Analytics minor at College of Business. 

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• Attended the FEMA Region 6 Higher Education Collaborative meeting held in Houston on August as a presenter. The University of Houston and the Texas Southern University co-hosted the meeting.

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• Serve as a panel discussant on September 27 at Prairie View A&M University - College of Agriculture and Human Sciences on the theme “One Year After Hurricane Harvey: Let’s Have a Discussion?” 

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• Attended the 29th Annual Conference of the International Information Management Association (IIMA) held in Houston Oct 8-10 and presented two papers;  (i) Social Media for Crisis Management in Under-served Communities: Design Considerations and (ii) Viewing Disaster Management through the Actor-Network Theory

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• Attended the 49th Annual Conference of the Decision Sciences Institute (DSI) held in Chicago, IL from November 17-19. The conference provided an opportunity to meet and interact with targeted potential future collaborators.

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• Attended a meeting with NSA held at Prairie View A&M University on November 28, 2018 as one of the presenters.

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• Dr. Khieu made a presentation on "Political Corruption and Corporate Risk Taking" at the College of Business Seminar Series on October 19.

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• Dr. Shahriari made a presentation on "Introduction to Data Analytics with KNIME" at the College of Business Seminar Series on November 9.

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2017

• We traveled to France to present our paper entitled “Social Media Visual Analytic Toolkits for Disaster Management: A Review of the Literature” at the 2017 international conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM).

• We gave a presentation entitled “Information and Communication Technology for Disaster Management: A Research and Teaching Agenda” at the 2017 FEMA EMI Higher Education Pre- Symposium Workshop (June 05, 2017).

• We hosted the 2017 DHS-VACCINE Visual Analytics MSI Faculty Training Workshop.

• We have attended the HBCU Flood and Hurricane Meeting at Tougaloo College (August 3-4, 2017).

2016

• Presented a poster at the Prairie View A&M University 2016 Industry Day.

• Presented a paper entitled “Examining the Role of Social Media in Disaster Management from an Attribution Theory Perspective” at the 2016 international conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM).

• Participated in a webinar on the theme “Social Media and Its Many Uses." The webinar was conjointly organized by the VACCINE center – Purdue University and the Military Academy University. For more information, click here.

• We presented our paper titled “Social Media Visual Analytics for Disaster Management: Improving Situational Awareness” at the 2016 Decision Sciences Institute Conference held in Dallas, TX November 19-22 2016.

VACCINE (Visual Analytics for Command, Control, and Interoperability Environments) is a U.S. Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence. The webinars are in coordination with the framework of The National Conversation on Homeland Security Technology that was recently created by the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T). Each webinar will focus on a specific structured dialogue topic related to homeland security technology in an effort to get people talking about problems, challenges, and solutions to keep our country safe.

The webinar, “Harnessing the Power of TEVUS,” will be highlighted by co-presenters Matthew A. Hughes, Captain, U.S. Army, and Liberty Day, Training Manager, START.

Please join us as we innovate, foster and challenge new ideas.

Dr. Louis Ngamassi, a College of Business professor at Prairie View A&M University, recently completed a summer research program with VACCINE. Ngamassi’s 10-week long visit with VACCINE was in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Summer Research Team for Minority Serving Institutions program, which seeks to enhance the leadership at minority serving institutions in subject areas that relate to DHS goals. Ngamassi has done extensive research about disaster management and international humanitarian organizations and sought to explore how visual analytics could aid in processing and disseminating disaster social media data.

VACCINE workshop on visual analytics organized at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, FL

With a travel grant awarded by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Dr. Ngamassi attended the two-day VACCINE workshop on visual analytics organized at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, FL. One of the objectives of this workshop was to prepare MSI faculty to incorporate visual analytics into their curriculum and programs. During the workshop Dr. Ngamassi was exposed to the theory and foundation of visual analytics. He also developed a better understanding of visual analytics and learned how to integrate it into course curriculum. This was very timely to me because He was in the process of developing a new course that includes a visual analytic component.