Students Develop Tool to Help American Red Cross Estimate Shelter Needs After Earthquakes
Published in CMU Heinz College News, 2025
This article documents a collaboration between a team of Carnegie Mellon University Heinz College data analytics master’s students and the American Red Cross, advised by Red Cross Planner Louis Luangkesorn.
The capstone team developed a rapid forecasting tool in Excel and Google Colab that predicts emergency shelter requirements within five minutes of an earthquake using USGS event identification numbers. Integrating open public data and an academic building habitability model from Italy, the tool generates critical resource estimates slated for integration into Red Cross disaster response operations.