FW-HTF: Future of Firefighting and Career Training - Advancing Cognitive, Communication, and Decision Making Capabilities of Firefighters

The Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier (FW-HTF) is one of 10 new Big Ideas for Future Investment announced by NSF. The FW-HTF cross-directorate program aims to respond to the challenges and opportunities of the changing landscape of jobs and work by supporting convergent research. This award fulfills part of that aim.

This project will enhance firefighting through a novel augmentation technology system. The project will involve advanced data, machines, tools, and human-technology relationships. Cognitive and social science studies will examine the impact of the new technology on human cognition and firefighters' work, training, and quality of life. The resulting augmentation technology will enhance the cognition, communication, and decision-making capabilities of firefighters. This project will have broader impacts at multiple levels ranging from individual firefighters to organizations and society. For firefighters, the new technology will enhance well-being and improve their job satisfaction and safety. The new technology will also help firefighters save lives and better protect property and the environment. The project's approach and result can be further extended to other types of emergency response workers, such as police, security, and disaster management and recovery.

This convergent project will advance the research frontiers of technology and social science with a specialized, scalable, and adaptable data infrastructure. The project will involve new methods of multi-source non-intrusive data collection; model-based and learning-based analyses and fire modeling algorithms suited for data-rich environments; immersive and cross-platform visualizations improving on-site investigation; and multi-sensory interaction, communication, and decision-making mechanisms. Cognitive and social science research will reveal how the augmentation technology can transform the firefighter's work and provide guidance to effectively design human-technology interactions. The project will adopt a mixed-methods approach including lab experiments, two major public report data sources, and two-waves of surveys and interviews of firefighters. The research team will also develop multidisciplinary course modules for undergraduate and graduate students and tutorials to be offered at major conferences in order to recruit a broad participants including women and under-represented students. Both technical modules and education materials will be accessible through online platforms including GitHub after evaluation and improvements.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.