John Aldridge

Nestled on the fifth floor of MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, among one hundred or so labs with approximately 4,000 scientists and engineers doing applied research and development on behalf of the US government and MIT, sits John Aldridge, Associate Leader of the Humanitarian and Disaster Relief Systems Group. Generally, groups within the Laboratory focus on a specific technology area (e.g., lidar, radar systems). But this group occupies a more nuanced position, tasked with implementing cutting-edge research and technology to an underserved mission area.

Aldridge contends that, as a nation and a global community, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief tend to get short shrift. “We often invest resources in technology development for other missions, but we tend to neglect humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. The adoption of technology in those areas is very difficult,” he says.

Rather than providing direct aid, the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Systems Group supports the volunteers and professionals on the front lines. It is a team of 30 people focused on building and implementing tools to help make on-the-ground stakeholders more effective and efficient. Whether that means designing a new sensor system or a decision support system that distills data into practical and applicable information, the Group is a vital aspect of the support structure.

We often invest resources in technology development for other missions, but we tend to neglect humanitarian assistance and disaster relief

When it comes to working in the humanitarian assistance and disaster relief space, Aldridge says it is essential to maintain an awareness of the technology maturity level of the environment into which the technologies will be deployed. Certain environments might be data sparse or infrastructure spare. Or, the opposite could be true—a congested environment filled with many people and plenty of infrastructure presents its own set of problems. Regardless, Aldridge and his colleagues must consider how to codify all the variables and distill the available data into actionable tools. "We try to be very cognizant of the environment that our technology is going into, and how our tools can be best used or more practically used,” says Aldridge. For example, does the decision-maker or responder need a sophisticated tool, or is that counterproductive to their goals? Perhaps they need something simple, easy to operate, explain, and share with the community or person meant to benefit from the endeavor.

One of the Group’s newest initiatives is a collaborative effort called the Climate Resistance Early Warning System Network (CREWSnet). It aims to reinvent climate adaptation by creating proactive, integrated decision-support tools that empower frontline communities to prepare for climate impacts and minimize losses. As Aldridge explains, CREWSnet stems from a bottom-up recognition that within the Institute there exists cutting-edge climate forecasting, impact forecasting and modeling, decision-support technologies, and intervention capabilities to create a vertically integrated forecasting, simulation, and modeling-to-impact structure. With CREWSnet, Aldridge and his colleagues are attempting to draw on the vast capabilities of the departments, labs, and centers across MIT that specialize in climate change, stitch the ideas together, and then partner with organizations trying to democratize access to climate change interventions.

“The unfortunate fact is that a lot of science and technology is being invested in climate change to understand what is happening. But access to the technology, and comprehension of it, is asymmetric,” says Aldridge. For example, if you read a Science or Nature paper, you can benefit from being more informed. But often, the people and communities most impacted by climate change don’t have that opportunity. Perhaps they lack access to the information, or they do not understand the information due to language barriers. "Democratization is an overused term, but in our case, it is applicable," says Aldridge. “We’re trying to democratize access to climate change information to empower communities to think for themselves and make decisions for themselves on what adaptation measures are most appropriate for the individual, for the family, and for the local community.”

Aldridge says the team chose to launch CREWSnet in Bangladesh because it is the nexus of many global climate change challenges in one geographic location. The nation struggles with salinity intrusion, sea level rise, extreme heat waves, long cyclone patterns, and erratic precipitation. “We're trying to be impactful as an institute, and Bangladesh stood out as a disadvantaged environment in terms of current climate conditions and climate forecasting, where it's important to make an impact as soon as possible,” he says.

We’re trying to democratize access to climate change information to empower communities to think for themselves and make decisions for themselves on what adaptation measures are most appropriate for the individual, for the family, and for the local community

But the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Systems Group is not an intervention organization, and MIT is not a response organization. This is why they look to collaborate with local partners on the ground. In the case of CREWSnet, the team from Lincoln Laboratory are partnering with a world-renowned Bangladesh-based nongovernmental organization (NGO) called Brac. "MIT is a world-leading institution in climate change science and impact forecasting, among other things, and BRAC is a global leader in empowering the individual and the family in the global south,” Aldridge explains. The Bangladesh-based NGO has been in existence as an organization nearly as long as Bangladesh has been an independent nation. As a result, it has a deep cultural connection with the community it serves. For Aldridge and the team, this makes Brac an ideal partner for their newest project.

As for the technologies they deploy, Aldridge says that the Group excels at using existing technologies designed for other use cases and repurposing them for the humanitarian assistance and disaster relief mission area. For CREWSnet, they are drawing on technologies from departments, labs, and consortiums across the Institute, including the Joint Program for the Science and Policy of Global Change, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth and Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, and the Legal Laboratory.

Aldridge points out that Lincoln Laboratory has a long history in decision support systems. It was responsible for building many of the national assets that the US government uses to respond to natural disasters and the systems used to evacuate communities in advance of and in response to hurricanes. CREWSnet will draw from this experience. "The expertise from those departments, labs, and centers will play an integral role in forecasting the social and economic impact modeling, everything from extreme weather, a hallmark of climate change, to assessing long-term trends in the environments that we’re working in,” Aldridge says.

The grand vision for CREWSnet is to become a force for the global public good, an initiative that translates across geographies and climate change impacts. Which is why the team are taking a methodical approach. First, they will start in a localized setting with a trusted partner on the ground, lay the foundation, and build from there. On the horizon, says Aldridge, is the idea of adding an East African component to CREWSnet, something being explored in parallel to the Bangladesh-based endeavor.

Aldridge says he considers Lincoln Laboratory to be something like a technology incubator. If a technology doesn't exist, or if it exists but has not been put to an intended purpose, Lincoln Laboratory bridges that gap. It builds new technologies and adapts or develops existing technologies to help people do their jobs better or even do a job that was once impossible. Aldridge says the goal is to transition the technologies to sponsors or commercial partners so that they have an impact in the real world.

This is where MIT Industrial Liaison Program comes in, functioning as a conduit to enable that transition. “Working with MIT ILP is great because we are always looking for opportunities,” says Aldridge. “Our group is focused on impact. So bridging the gap technologically is step one. Then bridging the gap into commercial practice or the real world is step two. And I think partnering with campus entities like lLP is a fantastic way to achieve that goal.”