Emergensor

Emergensor is a web service which provides security information for people living in conflict-affected areas through mobile application. Conflict has been a critical issue our society is facing today with a lot of innocent victims suffering from it. People who are living in conflict-affected regions are always living in fear of incidents such as bombings and gunfire, and are always facing risks - one is on safety and security. Thus, security information is really essential for their lives. However, despite this need, government in conflict-affected regions mostly do not share emergency information immediately. Thus, people use Social Networking Services such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram to share the information of incidents. It is, however, not the perfect solution. Information through SNS is usually delayed. That is why we need to find the measure to immediately share security information to and for everyone. Emergensor focuses on people’s behavior to provide immediate information because it must show obvious difference in the case of emergency. Emergensor has the technology which connects acceleration data and behaviors through machine learning. To get data from accelerometers of smartphones is a practical choice because it consumes less battery and have the least privacy issue as compared with the apps which always use GPS or microphone. In addition to that, it doesn’t send much data to the server therefore it works with 3G networks. Furthermore, Emergensor analyzes collective people’s behavioral data in the case of emergency. It always evaluates how unusual the user’s current behavior is and creates people’s behavioral maps when it detects users’ unusual actions. Henceforth, it has the potential to automatically analyze the behavioral maps through deep learning to share appropriate information to users. There have been few experiments for accelerometer in the Philippines especially for people in conflict-affected areas and almost no companies have tried to evaluate how unusual the user’s current behavior is. Additionally, it is a very rare attempt to analyze the behavioral data collectively. MyShake (http://myshake.berkeley.edu/), a free app to recognize earthquake by using accelerometer is the closest project; however, MyShake is purely for earthquakes. We have already developed an Android application and the mobile backend (server-side application) by utilizing Azure after conducting interviews with Filipinos who have been involved into conflicts. Emergensor Official Website: www.emergensor.com

We are researchers who are studying about conflict, people’s behavior, communication or smartphone sensors; and we hope our expertise can be properly used to solve current critical social issues. Shohei Yoshizawa is the leader and the Chief Executive Officer of this project. He is studying about conflict in the Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Tokyo, Japan and he also belongs to Hertie School of Governance, Germany. He has a lot of international experiences such as working for the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, and volunteering for the local people suffering from conflicts in Mindanao, Philippines. He started up Emergensor because he found student engineers who are highly motivated to help his wish be accomplished which is ‘Reducing victims of conflict by utilizing technology’, while being supported by professors in the University of Tokyo. Mary Lucel Sumatra is the Public Relations Director of Emergensor. She is a graduate of Western Mindanao State University (WMSU) with Latin Honors- Cum Laude and moved on to the graduate school of Liberal Arts in the Ateneo de Zamboanga University alongside her work as a former regular College English Instructor in WMSU. She met the CEO of Emergensor in Zamboanga, Philippines and was impressed by the CEO’s motivation and goals and eventually decided to cooperate with the project by using her network in the Philippines and her professional English skill. She is currently studying at the graduate school of Southern Mindanao while waiting for the residential permit of Japanese Government to study and deepen her profession more in a Japanese graduate school. Koichi Hasegawa is the Chief Application Engineer of Emergensor. He is a senior student from the Faculty of Engineering in the University of Tokyo and has worked for an IT company for a year. During his study, he has developed many original android apps by himself. He is also knowledgeable about server-side applications and now his skills and deep understanding of IT help Emergensor advance on its progress.