UQ Tech for Change 2026 - Team Future Commons — Transcript

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1. 0:00It's 2:00 a.m. in eastern Samar. A
2. 0:02typhoon has just made landfall. Maria's
3. 0:05family receives information from SMS,
4. 0:07radio, Facebook, and neighbors, but none
5. 0:10of it tells them what they need to know.
6. 0:12Should they evacuate? Is their Bang at
7. 0:14risk? Which information is the latest?
8. 0:17In those critical moments, communication
9. 0:19isn't just about receiving alerts. It's
10. 0:21about receiving the right information at
11. 0:23the right time. That's the problem we're
12. 0:25solving. Our target community is eastern
13. 0:28Samar, a coastal province in eastern
14. 0:30Visay's Philippines with a population of
15. 0:33about approximately
16. 0:35472,000 people. It consists of
17. 0:38communities spread across rural and
18. 0:40coastal areas that are frequently
19. 0:41exposed to typhoons from the Pacific
20. 0:43Ocean. The province is predominantly
21. 0:46Roman Catholic with churches playing a
22. 0:48central role in community life. While VA
23. 0:51is the primary local language spoken by
24. 0:54almost 98% of residents, these strong
25. 0:57community networks combined with
26. 0:58region's high disaster risk makes
27. 1:01eastern Samar an ideal location to
28. 1:03design a trusted and accessible
29. 1:05emergency communication solution.
30. 1:08Our current problem focuses on eastern
31. 1:10Samar where several barriers reduce the
32. 1:13effectiveness of disaster communication.
33. 1:15Firstly, the emergency warnings are
34. 1:18delivered in English and Tagalog.
35. 1:20However, war is the primary language and
36. 1:23these warnings are not delivered in a
37. 1:25way that is easy to understand. There
38. 1:27are also different warning systems for
39. 1:28different natural disasters which can
40. 1:31create confusion during emergencies.
41. 1:34Previous disasters have shown that these
42. 1:36systems can fail due to communication
43. 1:38gaps. Connectivity is another challenge
44. 1:41as many communities have limited
45. 1:42internet or mobile coverage and around
46. 1:4430% of people do not own a mobile phone
47. 1:47making SMS alerts alone insufficient.
48. 1:50Finally, the strong relationship between
49. 1:52the church and the local community means
50. 1:54that trusted community networks play a
51. 1:56critical role in sharing information.
52. 1:59These challenges demonstrate the need
53. 2:00for a disaster warning system that is
54. 2:02that is trustworthy, accessible, and
55. 2:05capable of reaching residents of
56. 2:06eastern.
57. 2:09In 2013, super typhoon Hayan killed over
58. 2:127,000 people. The National Weather
59. 2:14Agency issued an accurate storm surge
60. 2:16warning 18 hours before disaster hit,
61. 2:19but people still died in large numbers
62. 2:22because they did not understand the
63. 2:23technical term storm surge or the
64. 2:26language that it was communicated in.
65. 2:28This is why we built STRC, a
66. 2:31consolidated four-phase framework
67. 2:34delivered in the language coastal
68. 2:35communities understand. SDRC targets the
69. 2:39preparedness and response phases of
70. 2:41disaster management. The two windows
71. 2:43where getting information right actually
72. 2:45saves lives. Our first lay layer sense
73. 2:49uses AI powered drones to monitor flood
74. 2:51risk and terrain conditions in the
75. 2:53coastal communities to predict danger
76. 2:55before water actually rises. The second
77. 2:58layer translate converts real-time
78. 3:00bulletins from weather stations which
79. 3:02issue it in tagalog and English into the
80. 3:05locally understood vare language. The
81. 3:07third layer, reach, is an alert system,
82. 3:10which is solar powered sirens, LEDs, and
83. 3:13radio units at the local community
84. 3:15center to reach residents regardless of
85. 3:18their literacy or the devices they use.
86. 3:20And fourth, we connect the system using
87. 3:23satellites like Starlink to keep the
88. 3:25system alive when traditional networks
89. 3:28fail in storms and also facilitate a
90. 3:31two-way communications channel so that
91. 3:33the residents can also communicate with
92. 3:35authorities. Our solution is feasible
93. 3:38since every piece is built on technology
94. 3:40already proven in the Philippines. It's
95. 3:42also scalable from one community to the
96. 3:45entire Samar province. It's also low
97. 3:47cost as it uses existing solar and
98. 3:50satellite infrastructure. And most
99. 3:52importantly, it's accessible because a
100. 3:55warning nobody understands or trusts is
101. 3:57not a warning at all.
102. 4:02>> Trust is essential to to effective
103. 4:04disaster response. High levels of
104. 4:06poverty remain in the region and
105. 4:08government trust is a significant
106. 4:10challenge. However, high trust in the
107. 4:13Catholic Church means it tends to act as
108. 4:15a mediator between the police, the
109. 4:17people and the government, including
110. 4:18through the Samar Island Partnership for
111. 4:21Peace and Development. This is an
112. 4:23unusually political role for the church
113. 4:24in the Philippines. Meaning the trust
114. 4:26this community places in them is quite
115. 4:28significant. To partner with the church,
116. 4:31we will present our clear plan, give
117. 4:33clear aims and objectives and develop it
118. 4:35further through local engagements. We
119. 4:38hope to work with the church to educate
120. 4:39the local population and local leaders
121. 4:41about our response unit which we will
122. 4:43locate within the church building,
123. 4:46teaching about the meaning of the
124. 4:48devices to alert um the residents in the
125. 4:50event of an emergency. Through this
126. 4:52partnership, we are confident we can
127. 4:54develop an effective and a scalable
128. 4:56disaster response system in eastern
129. 4:58Samar Province. Thank you.