This month on Assuming Command, Bob spoke with Kate Kapalo about her research in technology in the fire service, specifically more effective pre-planning applications and the use of virtual or augmented reality in training and emergency response. Kate has an impressive background, with an MS and PhD in Modeling and Simulation from the University of Central Florida and graduate certificates in Cognitive Science and Modeling and Simulation. Currently, Kate is a post-doctoral research associate at Brown University supporting the National Institute of Standards and Technology Public Safety Communications Research Division. Her previous experience includes time as a research statistician for Orange County Fire Rescue and as a research psychologist for the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division in Orlando. Kate also spends time volunteering for Troops to Firefighters, an organization that provides training and transitional resources to military veterans and their families interested in fire and 9-1-1 dispatch positions. https://www.troopstofirefighters.org/
Kate’s current work has several areas of focus with the goal of identifying how technology can be developed and applied to make it more user friendly, efficient, and tailored for fire service applications. One area is that of pre-planning. Currently many pre-planning is still in paper format and may be out of date. Kate is studying how departments use their pre-plans, how to transition those plans to an electronic format, and how they can be efficiently maintained and updated, especially when staff hours are limited. She is also working on how virtual and augmented reality can be integrated into training programs, including it’s use as a training aid and supplement to live training for incident commanders to allow them to gain experience in a broad range of incident types quickly and cost effectively. One thing Kate has found in her research is that technology needs to be streamlined and reliable, or it won’t be utilized in the field.
Kate’s work can be found at her LinkedIn, on her website, and on ResearchGate.
· LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katekapalo/
· Website: http://www.katekapalo.com/
· Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Katelynn_Kapalo
