Every day, thousands of Australians rely on Emergency Response Vehicles to help them during a time of genuine need. In many cases, the speed of these vehicles can mean the difference between life and death.
Viney Kumar, a 14-year old from Knox Grammar School in Sydney, has been selected one of 15 global finalists in this year’s Google Science Fair for his project PART (Police and Ambulance Regulating Traffic Program). Viney’s project looks for new ways to provide drivers with more notice when an emergency vehicle is approaching, so they can can take evasive action to get out of the emergency vehicle’s way.
When Viney was in India, he observed an ambulance that was stuck in a traffic jam and unable to move. This inspired Viney to build and develop a smartphone application that provides an early-warning graphic as well as a spoken notification on hands-free mobile phones when an emergency vehicle is within 800 metres of the target car.
Traditionally, sirens and flashing lights are the way drivers are alerted to an oncoming ambulance. But as Viney points out, this is not very efficient as “sirens are only audible within 100m or less [if the windows are closed] and that only 26% [of drivers] can tell the direction of an ambulance without visual cues.”
Viney conducted repeated trials of his new app and found that his PART system provides drivers with an average of 67 seconds reaction time when an emergency vehicle is approaching. When compared against the published siren reaction times of between 7 and 14 seconds, Viney’s results shows that his new app could could give up to eight times longer to ensure that they can move out of the way for emergency vehicles.
The 15 finalists will join be invited to Google headquarters in Mountain View on September 23 to present their projects to an international panel of esteemed scientists for the final round of judging. The Grand Prize winner will receive a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands with National Geographic Expeditions, $50,000 in scholarship funding and more. We wish Viney all the very best in the final stages of the competition and hope to see his project implemented in Australia and across the world to help emergency workers more effectively carry out their life-saving work.
Posted by Clare Conway, Google Science Fair team
