APSU student Lance Batson and GIS Center develop inventory app

Clarksville, TN – The larger a business or government agency gets, the more equipment it acquires. Keeping track of all those computers and iPads and automobiles can be a nightmare, especially if files are misplaced or if someone’s handwriting is too messy.

Austin Peay State University student Lance Batson and the school’s Geographic Information Systems office are hoping to eliminate these problems by allowing agency’s to go paperless with a new digital asset management system. [Read more]

APSU creates new Mobile Technology Center for App Development

Clarksville, TN – Since fall of 2010, Austin Peay State University has made strides in mobile technology development.

Last August, APSU released its iPhone app for faculty and students. Months later, that app was reincarnated for the Android. Then in the Spring 2011 semester, the University’s Department of Computer Science and Information Technology was one of the first computer departments in Tennessee to offer a mobile software development class.

On top of those developments, the APSU Geographic Information System (GIS) Center began creating the Disaster Mitigation and Recovery Kit (DMARK) to enable emergency responders to record damage assessments on their cell phones. [Read more]

APSU’s GIS Center and Oak Ridge Receive $400,000 Grant for Cell Phone App Program

Clarksville, TN – On a stormy Monday afternoon, while tornado sirens blared across the Austin Peay State University campus, Mike Wilson, manager of the school’s Geographic Information Systems Center, decided to talk about natural disasters.

“Suppose a tornado rips through here,” he said, knocking on his wood desk to ward off the suggestion. “If that happens, local officials will need to do a preliminary damage assessment. That’ll go to the state, and the governor will make a decision on whether to call in FEMA for a natural disaster. This app speeds that up.”

Wilson motioned to his Android mobile phone. A year ago, his office, in conjunction with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, developed an innovative new cell phone application known as the Disaster Mitigation and Recovery Kit (DMARK). The application allows emergency responders to document immediately any damage they come across following a disaster. [Read more]

APSU GIS Center helps develop Damage Assessment application

The building, like so many homes and businesses in middle Tennessee, was a pale brown from where the floodwaters covered it. Mike Wilson, manager of Austin Peay State University’s Geographic Information Systems, stood among the tree limbs and other debris in the Woodlawn community and pulled out his cell phone.

He wasn’t making a call. He was filling out a damage assessment of the property and filing it to an electronic server. It took him only a few minutes to complete. For years, the long, drawn-out process of recording the destruction inflicted by a disaster has sometimes taken days or weeks, delaying the time it takes for needed aid to reach an area, but a new cell phone application, developed by the APSU GIS Center and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, may soon allow emergency responders to document immediately any damage they come across. [Read more]