However, students at Georgia Tech prove that the concepts used to minimize industrial bottlenecks can also increase the efficiency of municipal operations like the Georgia Tech and Atlanta Police Departments (GTPD and APD).
“We want to use sophisticated analytics and Big Data technology to help support, optimize and fine-tune policies and decisions,” said David Goldberg, assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering. “I love for academics to have a direct and meaningful impact on local communities.”
This led Prof. Goldberg to contact the police departments to assist them with their logistical challenges using applied probabilities, optimizations and machine learning. He then gathered a team of about half a dozen undergraduate students to assess the data of the two police departments.
Current results show where and how crimes take place. Additionally, the team has proven that crime rates have reduced on campus and in the city. The goal now is to use predictive analytics to determine how crime will change and how the police departments can adapt to this information.
The team is using various mapping tools to analyze crime and police zoning including: Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Google Earth and Microsoft MapPoint. These analytics will demonstrate how the crimes correlate, cluster and change with the city.
The work seems to be paying off for both the police force and students. “There’s a huge amount of creativity involved, which I think is vital to developing innovative solutions,” said fourth-year student David Wang.
“It’s just so different from other research work I have done,” said undergraduate Bingyi Bao. “The topics of most research work are about inventing new theories, but this project is about us.”
Randy Ory, crime analyst for GTPD said “I can’t impress enough what it means to us to have this partnership.” Clearly the research team and the police departments see the importance of their work and its social impact.
Goldberg agrees with his students saying, “I wanted to find a way to use my work on campus. Sometimes as an academic you lose sight of what you can do right here.” It seems there is nothing to rekindle your love of research like applying your field of study to protect the city you love.
What innovative way do you think engineering concepts can help traditionally non-engineering workplaces? Where else can engineering’s influence expand to better society? Comment below.