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Tag: School Safety

Virtual Alabama School Safety Summit — Preparing and Responding to Crisis

Virtual Alabama School Safety Summit — Preparing and Responding to Crisis

The 6th Annual Virtual Alabama School Safety Summit will be hosted by nSide, and partnered with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and Alabama State Department of Education on February 29thand March 1st, 2016 in Montgomery, Alabama.

The Summit will provide a discussion of emergency preparedness and response solutions and networking opportunities with first responders and K-12 public and private schools, colleges and universities. This year’s Summit includes solutions and discussions surrounding facilities management and how it plays a major role in emergency preparedness as well as day-to-day operations of your campus.

The Summit will highlight and focus on training and discussions for emergency operations plans, vehicle tracking, a mobile environment for campus maps, active shooter scenarios, and overall school safety.

October 15, 2016
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nSide Visits Mississippi State University to Inspire Students to Pursue Careers in Technology and Cybersecurity

nSide Visits Mississippi State University to Inspire Students to Pursue Careers in Technology and Cybersecurity

On Wednesday, July 20th CEO Dr. Steve McKinney, Data Division Manager Robert Nall, and Chief Network Engineer Justin Billingsley traveled to Mississippi State University to speak with middle and high school boys and teachers attending the GenCyber funded Bulldog Bytes Computing Camps.The GenCyber program is a partnership between the National Security Agency (NSA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Mississippi State has hosted GenCyber summer camps each summer since the program’s inception in 2014, and nSide team members were excited to travel south to talk with this year’s participants about the relationships between technology, safety, and network vulnerability.

The NSA and NSF partnered with schools and universities in 37 different states this summer in an effort to increase cybersecurity awareness amongst teachers and adolescents and to address anticipated shortages in the cyber workforce. For example, in 2015, 90% of members of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) surveyed agreed that there was a shortage of cybersecurity professionals. This shortage of qualified cybersecurity professionals is an eminent security threat for the United States, reflected by President Obama’s February 2016 identification of cybersecurity as one of the United States’ “most important challenges.”

Dr. McKinney spent time talking with Bulldog Bytes campers and teachers about the Internet of Things, inviting listeners to contemplate where technology has been, where it is currently, and where the future will take us, emphasizing the new challenges and increased security needs as more and more people and devices connect. Robert spoke as a geographer turned techie, explaining the importance of code literacy for all kinds of jobs and his tools-based approach to programming. Justin, responsible for the security of nSide’s system, addressed system vulnerabilities and the nonstop attention needed to deter and prevent hackers. Dr. McKinney closed things off, intimating to campers that it was his experience at 12 years old in a summer computer camp that lead him down the path that currently has him positioned as CEO of a tech startup named by CIO Magazine as one of the “50 Most Promising Google Technology Solution Providers” in 2015. He encouraged campers to use technology to address problems, have big ideas, and to make the world a better and safer place.

Contributed by: Stacy Kastner, PhD, Mississippi State University

October 15, 2016
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nSide Participates in University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) Active Shooter Drill

nSide Participates in University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) Active Shooter Drill

nSide was invited by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s (UTC) Emergency Management Team including Executive Director, Robie Robinson and EM Specialist, Tim Pridemore to participate and support an Active Shooter Drill at UTC on 12/16/15.

The event was a ‘table top’ reenactment of an actual Active Shooter simulation occurring on campus during a busy school day within a heavily populated school building. Drill attendees included over 10 university departments, UTC executive leadership, Campus Police, Emergency Management experts, Chattanooga Police, Chattanooga Fire, Hamilton County EMA, UTK and many others.

The drill stepped through a series of ‘learning’ and ‘collaboration’ goals and ‘Inject Points’ so all attendees could better understand each group’s role, become better prepared and visualize how such an event would unfold during response and recovery. Robie and Tim lead the drill exercise engaging all participants with thoughtful questions posing how best to respond as each minute passed and new information was flooding in via phone calls, texts and tweets from students, faculty and first responders on site.

The team stressed the following primary goals throughout the drill:

  1. Life Safety
  2. Incident Stabilization
  3. Property Conservation

With everyone focused on successfully pursuing and fulfilling these, there was clarity to the actions to be taken at each moment.

nSide provided a campus and building visual that also added greatly clarity to the location of the shooter and how best to respond. nSide web and mobile versions of the software were projected on two large display screens, depicting a full campus views and then both applications zooming down to the building at the center of the incident. Moving into the building with 360 pictures of each room, walk throughs of all floors, showing critical fire and medical assets as well as identifying further potential dangers including hazardous materials, gases and contaminants that could cause more damage by the intruder.

UTC executives were very impressed by visualizations provided by nSide. Several executives stated the maps provided excellent information throughout the event allowing them to best understand the location and what was happening as the response was underway as well as how it ended and how recovery would be rolled out.

Robie and Tim both thanked the nSide team for participating. Robie stated,

“I think including nSide in the drill was great! It allowed everyone to better understand the area and all responders and administrators being able to access the map answered a lot of questions keeping everyone up to date throughout the event”

We applaud UTC’s Emergency Management team for their excellent efforts to engage the greater Chattanooga emergency response teams, create such a realistic event for learning and using innovative new technologies like nSide to be better prepared to respond more effectively and efficiently. This training exercise and those to follow make a dramatic impact on saving lives, minimizing the impact of an incident and protecting property in case of an emergency at UTC.

We thank UTC for allowing nSide to participate and working so hard to create a safer environment for everyone at UTC.

October 15, 2016
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University of Miami Signs On With nSide

University of Miami Signs On With nSide

The University of Miami is a private research university with more than 16,000 students from around the world, the University of Miami is a vibrant and diverse academic community focused on teaching and learning, the discovery of new knowledge, and service to the South Florida region and beyond.

Founded in 1925, The University comprises 11 schools and colleges serving undergraduate and graduate students in more than 180 majors and programs. In 2014, for the sixth year in a row, U.S. News & World Report ranked UM among the top 50 universities in the country in its “Best Colleges” listings. U.S. News also cites several of its programs in “America’s Best Graduate Schools.”

Why nSide?

The University of Miami’s’ Emergency Management Director, Scott Burnotes had a vision of being able to view all 250 buildings on UM’s campus and all emergency/critical assets from the privacy of his office.

nSide was the answer to Scott’s vision. In addition, nSide’s ease of use, and ease of collecting new and updated data is so easy, his staff was able to handle this work themselves. Scott and his staff were able to be trained in less than 2 hours. Then they were off an running. The nSide team loaded all the floor plans from pdfs for all buildings and all floors so Scott’s team could visit each building and capture all the data at their pace.

“I had been thinking about this type of solution (nSide) for a long time, and here it is! The fact that it’s so easy to use, learn and collect data, makes this perfect for the University of Miami. I see nSide having a huge positive impact on our abilities to better protect our students and respond to all types of emergencies!”

Scott Burnotes

For more information about how we can help you, contact us at 800.604.1822 or info@nside.io.

October 15, 2016
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nSide Gives Back to Community for Geography Awareness Week

nSide Gives Back to Community for Geography Awareness Week

Established by presidential proclamation in 1987, November 15–21, 2015 marked the 28th annual Geography Awareness Week. Organized by National Geographic Education Programs, their website explains the the event was founded in order to address a geography gap in K-12 education and to “excite people about geography as both a discipline and as a part of everyday life.”

nSide team members Robert Nall, Cameron Martin, and Seth Thompson were excited to join McBride Elementary third graders in Muscle Shoals, Alabama last Wednesday in support of this important national initiative.

As a state, Alabama has the good fortune of strong geography allies in The University of North Alabama Department of Geography and the Alabama Geographic Alliance (AGA). UNA and AGA have been working together since 2014 to institute a geospatial semester for local high schools. The result of their successful collaboration is a dual enrollment course that introduces AP high school students to geography themes and geospatial technologies. Each high school class collaborates on a project, and this year, at Muscle Shoals High School, the class hosted a “Journey with Geography” event for area third graders. On Wednesday, November 18th, third graders from McBride Elementary filed into the Muscle Shoals high school library and were greeted by geography-themed learning stations representing different regions around the world.

The Data and GIS team from nSide joined the event to facilitate a hands-on GIS demonstration as part of the event. Focusing on Latin America, Nall, Martin, and Thompson introduced students to Google My Maps, a web-based application that allows Google users to create and disseminate maps and spatial information. Third graders were instructed in digitizing, describing patterns, and asking spatial questions. Students were collectively captivated by creating spatial data, adding attributes, and visualizing different basemaps. “These kids are used to technology, so they caught on extremely quick. You could tell the excitement when they started to be able to identify patterns in the maps they were creating. It was a lot of fun,” says Nall, GIS Manager. Thompson, GIS Analyst, was also impressed with the third graders, he explained: “I really enjoyed seeing the excitement and creativeness from the students as they took ownership of their maps. It was great to see them engaged and asking spatial questions.” Allie Grissom, third grade teacher at McBride Elementary, praised the interactive spatial thinking activity designed by the nSide team: “My kids loved mapping the locations using GIS technology in the computer lab. They were fascinated that they could pinpoint locations and determine distances instantly and see satellite images of those locations halfway across the globe.”

nSide takes great pride in participating in community outreach events, especially those that enable them to provide educational opportunities for kids. “The opportunity to work with kids at such a young age, providing a look at GIS and what you can do with it, was very gratifying. The students seemed to take pride in personalizing the maps and calling it their own,” explained Martin, GIS Analyst. nSide would like to thank the University of North Alabama Department of Geography, the Alabama Geographic Alliance, and Muscle Shoals High School for the invitation to participate in this event.

Other contributing authors: Cameron Martin, Seth Thompson

November 22, 2015
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