Information to manage a crisis!

Last week a group of awesome students (10 schools!) answered the call and stepped up to face a difficult challenge that would test their ability to gather information, manage it, filter, and analyse it, before making good decisions about how we can resolve a critical situation and communicate it to those who needed to know!

When we look at the future of our nation and our planet we recognise that Information will be key to everything we do. Every role and job you perform, it will be vital to have key skills around information management.

Every decision you make can only be a good one if you have good quality, trustworthy information and this forms the basis of the digital world around us!

With information being the key, the Resilience Challenge saw them gathering, verifying, managing, analysing, using and communicating it to save their community from a truly epic disaster!

So what did the students face?

The initial incident was the discovery of a large WW2 bomb on a construction site, as this frequently happens on the island due to its proximity to the front lines during the Battle of Britain. They had to analyse the infrastructure networks that might be disrupted, including the knock on effects and also plan for the evacuation of local residence.

The information they needed to discover was fed to them through a website, that had news reports, social media, emergency services updates and the infrastructure network files. They could also use the internet to discover more about the demographics and potential impacts of their decisions.

Behind the scenes were a small army of "Phone a Friend" subject matter experts from across industry and around the world who could offer good advice to the students when faced with a difficult technical question! SME's from as far a field as the Philippines, Brazil, USA, Poland and across Europe pitched in to support the event!

After a morning of discovery, the scenario took a turn for the worse with the device exploding and causing damage to critical infrastructure in the area. The students then had to understand how Power, Water, Sewerage, Communications and Transportation impact on society, to create a course of action that would limit the initial impact and also provide a long term resilience for the island!

Finally they had to present their findings to a panel of judges brought together from government, military, emergency services and infrastructure owners.

The presentations were incredible!!

The winning teams were:

Most Innovative Response: Medina College

Thinking outside of the box: Christ The Kings College

Best Infrastructure analysis and deductions: Ryde Academy

Best Humanitarian response: St Georges School

Best overall course of action: Island 6th Form

The event was a massive success with putting a new perspective on Information Management as a key feature in future careers and teaching.

Thank you to Ed-Wise, Topcon, Bentley Systems, MedTec, Solent Partners, Royal Engineers, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Police, NHS, IoW Council, Southern Water, Department for Business and Trade, COMIT and all the independent industry specialists that made the two days truly memorable.