FEMA, “War Gaming” Crisis Management
Colorado School Of Mines, Fall 2020
Problem Statement
The National Preparedness Division needs a safe and interactive way to run large-scale emergency simulations in order to improve crisis management skills and validate the response capabilities of the various communities.
Problem Scoping and Discovery
Through end-user and customer discovery, the student team pivoted away from emergency simulations to educating the general public on disaster hazards and preparedness in a non-resource intensive way.
Outcome
To address this re-scoped problem, the team developed a minimal viable product to test delivery of education by engaging the public in an activity that they already enjoy- gaming- while delivering disaster preparedness awareness & training.
Results / Next Steps
The team recommended two possible paths to deployment; 1. The team creates disaster preparedness games with FEMA, 2. FEMA partners with existing gaming companies who already have a large following and work to refocus currently popular games on disaster preparedness.