The Computerworld Honors Program's 21^st Century Achievement Awards saw a Clemson University project that will enhance emergency response capabilities emerge as one of the finalists in the competition.

Clemson was one of the 262 Laureates that were honored at an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., and was also recognized as one of five finalists for the top award in the safety and security category. The awards are given as recognition of "visionary applications of information technology promoting positive social, economic and educational change."

Led by Clemson Computing and Information Technology (CCIT), the Clemson project is developing a data management and visual display system that will be used when responding to emergencies. The system, which is known as a Common Operational Picture (COP), is being created with a consortium of four Upstate South Carolina counties: Pickens, Anderson, Greenwood, and Abbeville.

In a release, David White (News - Alert), CCIT’s director of environmental informatics, said, “We were surprised to be named a finalist. This is still a young project, but it has a lot of potential for solving real-world problems. We’re excited to be able to help first responders and emergency management officials with this project. Ultimately, we can have first responders using mobile technology to push critical data and information onto the COP and emergency managers in the command center providing information to the responders in the field, and all of them will be able to access data and information in a real-time mapping system.”

The development of the system started back in 2010 and is continuing today.

Jim Bottum, Clemson’s chief information officer, said, “We are very proud of David's team's accomplishments. It is inspiring to see the team partnering with first responders using university-developed technology to address serious societal challenges.”

The Computerworld magazine and the Computerworld Information Technology Awards Foundation present the Computerworld Honors every year. The 2011 Laureates were chosen from more than 1,000 nominations from around the world.

The U.S. Army Research Development and Engineering Command received the top award in the safety and security category for a system that blocks detonation of radio-controlled improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

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