December 17, 2019 • 29 mins
Supporting and keeping our fellow neighbors safe has always been one of the primary roles played by our communities. While it is human nature to help, technology has exceeded our human capabilities, helping us to respond faster and more efficiently. A 5G world's connectivity will usher in the next wave of advancement as emergency response capabilities grow exponentially, and we explore new ways to stop crises before they even begin. In this episode, we hear from Harold Schapelhouman, Chief of the Menlo Park Fire Department, who is upgrading the tools he's using, such as drones, keeping his crews and citizens safe. We'll also hear from Nicole Raimundo, Chief Information Officer of Cary, North Carolina, who is utilizing the latest advancements in technology to make Cary one of the most connected cities in America. Make sure to check out other episodes in this series featuring: Paul Winsper, VP of Athlete Performance at Under Armour and Natasha Franck, Founder and CEO of the startup EON.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
On last week's episode, we discussed the new opportunities in
the field of virtual reality. We heard from Evelyn Morales,
the former head of VR at NASA, Jeff Marshall, the
founder of Ovation, a business built around VR based public
speaking training, and Daniel McIntyre a K. Danny Mack, the
director of Community Corrections for Pennsylvania, where he has developed
an innovative VR program to help inmates prior to release.
(00:37):
Maybe it seems obvious, but business is changing, and much
of that change from digital transformation to workplace innovation is
driven by critical advancements in mobility. Thanks to support from
Temobile for Business, We're here to explore how five G
could enable innovations in the life saving efforts of first responders,
and how new applications could change the way we're able
(00:57):
to anticipate and react to natural disasters and emergencies. Well,
it's not at all like a scene in a movie.
The first fire that I was in was a building
fire in Hollywood. You can always see the flames, and
you know, they can always see each other. That's not
(01:18):
at all what it's like. Pretty much, you go into
a building and the smoke is down to the ground.
It's confusing. You can't even see the hand in front
of your face piece. That's Harold Schappelholman speaking. He's been
fighting fire since. It's very physical, right. I'm about six
ft three in height, and so you know. One of
things that's not intuitive is you've gotta get down as
(01:40):
low as you can to the ground and yet pull
charge hose lined into a building. They've got to fight
the fire, which means that you can't see it. It's exhilarating,
it's frightening. There's all these things that are happening around you.
At the same time, you've got to stay focused. One
of the most important elements of fighting of fire is
having the right tools. The old days, before we had hoods,
(02:01):
I mean it would literally burn your ears, so you
would have if you looked at older firefighters had scarring
on their ears. But that was also your temperature gauge.
When it got too hot, then you realize you had
to get out. So today they're much more encapsulated, which
also creates a problem because when something goes wrong, it
goes wrong in a bigger way based upon how far
away you are from the opening and safety. In two
(02:24):
thousand and six, Harold Schappelholman became chief of the Menlo
Park Fight District in California. That leadership role gave him
a new sense of responsibility to actively seek out and
sometimes even create new tools to fight fire. Real things
happened to real people, and a lot of times they're
sad and unfortunate. But on the same token, you know,
(02:46):
we're there to do a job and to do it
as quickly as possible, try and make it better in
some way, even though we're a little bit late to
the party. Sometimes I feel obligated, as the leader of
the organization as well as someone who did this for many,
many years, to not only bring innovation to the fore
for the benefit of the community, but equally to bring
it for our personnel so that we make them much
(03:07):
more efficient, much more effective protect them in the community
at a much higher level. It's no secret that the
community's Harold Protects. Menlo Park, pala Alto Stanford are some
of the biggest tech hubs in the country, areas not
just of affluence but also innovation. Facebook is based out
of Melo Park. Google, Apple, They're all down the street.
(03:30):
We're surrounded by really really smart, innovated people who either
work in our community or living it. I mean, I
don't know that every community has a Google car driving
around with the things spinning on the roof that's started here.
We're surrounded by it, we're immersed in it, but we're
also responding to it. Harold believes that advances in technology
can make communities safer by giving them more efficient tools
(03:54):
to detect and respond to all kinds of emergencies, and
that the advance is promised by five G, lower latency,
more sensors. Edge computing could radically improve the way we
respond to crises by enhancing communication, automating critical services, and
gathering real time data that could save lives. In this
(04:16):
episode will explore how emergency services are already benefiting from
new technologies and preparing for the five G future. And
we'll look at how one smart town is partnering with
businesses with the goal of improving quality of life for
citizens and responding better to natural disasters. I'm as Velosen
and this is This Time Tomorrow, a podcast about how
(04:37):
advances in connectivity could change the way we live. So
carry like these stories about how new technologies can play
a role in places we really think about them. Last
episode we're in out of space, and Harold was just
talking about the center of a fire. Yeah, you know.
They say necessity is the mother of invention, and trying
(04:59):
to make sure you don't float off into space or
get trapped in a burning building definitely makes you think
about building better products for the future. It's also the
second time in the series we've talked to somebody out
of Silicon Valley. In the first episode we spoke to
Andrea Goldsmith, who's both a wire as professor at Stanford
and the founder of a NASDACK listed public company. So
it's one of those places where business and technology come
(05:21):
together for innovations. And Chief Chappelhaman talked about using the
Menlo Park fire district to test out new commercial products
that can then be adopted more widely, and that pressure testing,
I think is important because the chief also warned that
innovation can sometimes be technically brilliant but practically stupid. Well,
I need to imagine a tech CEO actually fighting a wildfire.
(05:41):
They'd show up in one of those tech vests police police.
Let's say the name of venture capital for a moment.
But it is why it's so important that the design
phase is not done in a vacuum exactly. And later
in this episode, Chief Harold is going to talk all
about that and in particular how he thinks that the
data gathering and processing promise I five G could enable
new types of tools that will help his five fighters
(06:03):
be more effective and also safer. I read an interesting
statistic from McKenzie that globally, every second another one hundred
and twenty seven devices are connected to the Internet. That's
a lot of devices and potentially a lot of data
being gathered about us. And one of the people who
thinks a lot about all of this is Nicole ray Mundo.
She's the chief information officer of Carrie, North Carolina, and
(06:26):
she's very focused on partnering with companies to make carry
one of the most connected towns in America and oz
you know, you want to listen to this segment if
you're like, what is a connected town anyway? Just about
to ask A hundred and seventy thousand that's our population.
(06:48):
We sit right outside of we searched Triangle Park, which
is home to lots of headquarters of technology and biotechnology companies.
So it makes our role here a little bit more
challenging to make sure that we're meeting the demands of
our citizens. That's Nicole Raimundo. I wasn't entirely sure what
it meant to be a chief information officer in local government,
(07:11):
so when I spoke with Nicole, I was struck by
how she balanced a pragmatic approach with a kind of
contagious optimism about the future. My role is really about
looking at our current solutions and bringing us into a
modern state, but also really preparing us for the future.
So that means understanding emerging technologies and how we can
(07:32):
leverage those across the town. The term smart city, which
has little to do with the intelligence of the population,
has long been talked about as a way to boost
efficiency and improve life for citizens. But it's another one
of those terms like artificial intelligence, that sounds really good
in a headline, and as a result, doesn't have a
clear definition. So when we talk about smart cities, it's
(07:54):
a term that I actually don't like. Um smart cities,
I think confers it cities weren't smart before, which I
think that we were, And I really think about it
as building a connected community utilizing technology and data analysis
not only to optimize city functions but grow economic development
while improving the quality of life for our citizens. One
(08:17):
thing is clear. To have a truly connected city, it
will likely involve the expansion of the Internet of things.
Things like vehicle to vehicle communication or vehicle to infrastructure communication.
For example, where the light tells your car it's about
to turn red, so you should slow down. These are
all a part of the Internet of Things, and IoT
(08:39):
is already underway with innovations like smart fridges, lights, and thermostats.
But with the greater connectivity that a five G network
may provide, the ways in which IoT can connect us
will vastly expand. So here and carry we started to
think about what is IoT me knowing that it was
emerging and going to come very quickly, and we looked
(09:00):
at leveraging our town Hall campus and we offered that
up as a testing ground for companies to come in
and test their technologies, help us understand how to utilize them,
how to extract the data make better decisions, and we've
learned a lot from that. Making decisions when it comes
(09:20):
to local government often means making decisions for the health
and safety of the community. Nicole took an innovative approach
to a complex problem by partnering with a tech startup
and utilizing their new product carries a very proactive community.
We had the opportunity to apply for a grant through
Bloomberg and we had learned of a company out of
(09:43):
m I T called Biobot Analytics, and they had a
product that you put into your wastewater and test for
opioid consumption. During the process, though, we really thought about
what's the best way to use this data. And while
the consumption data that we received today isn't quite real time,
it takes about a month, that can certainly change the
(10:05):
game in how we as a community think about how
we can address the situation. I absolutely think in real
time that the future is being able to connect these
sensors via a network and to a lab. I think
that's something that they're probably working on because they want
to see that data in real time just as much
as the communities do. Whenever we think of data gathering,
(10:29):
the next natural thought is about my data and my privacy.
So I asked Nicole how the town balanced the issue
of data for public use and personal privacy. So the
issue of privacy, so it's top of mind, right, I
think that's everyone's big concerned we can't tell which household
it actually tests about fifteen thousand households. We can't identify
(10:51):
a person's home or even a neighborhood. We have looked
at should we develop data privacy policies. That's something that
we will continue to test that. Nicole works closely with
researchers but also businesses to test products and get them
ready for market. And as chief Information Officer of Kerry,
Nicole's goal is to look at how the town operates holistically.
(11:15):
So I think often the first cities that did smart
technologies really did them in siloed ways. But really to
get the value of how these all work is to
actually figure out how to connect them all together. So
let me giving you an example of how we think
about leveraging IoT technology in the day of the life
(11:37):
of a citizen that's going to benefit them. So, for example,
we have a sensor that warns us of a potential flooding.
That sensor then triggers a work order for our utility
staff to investigate. They investigate it. That triggers another case
into our public work staff to respond close the road,
(11:59):
which then try gears both our three one one and
one where they're going to get updates, could be video
from a drone, right, which we can accurately respond to
citizen and media inquiries. As Nicole tells it, soon the
whole town starts working automatically to mitigate the spread of
potential flooding. Then this data right is also sent to
(12:20):
our intelligent traffic network that's going to adjust the timing
on nearby intersections and accommodate our traffic roots. It's also
going to send that same data out to ways, which
will redirect right private vehicles around the issue. Also gonna
get the data to our public safety, our cats system,
our transit system notifying police, fire bus units so everyone
(12:43):
can be diverted around this area. It can also send
the information out for public service announcement right, So, whether
that's text, messaging, social so Twitter, Facebook, notifying our community
to avoid the area and what's going on. Nicole explained
to me that what she us described was complete, which
begged the question, what does the future look like for
(13:06):
a town like Carry. The work that we're doing and
Carry is phenomenal, but we don't have walls around Carry. Right.
I live in a community, I drive to another community,
I'm running around two different other municipalities, which I think
is fairly similar to everyone's lives. We're running from place
to place to place, tornadoes, hurricanes, they don't know town limits,
(13:28):
So that requires a lot of communication between a lot
of people, a lot of emergency services. And what does
that look like. That looks like the combination of information
for hundreds or even thousands of sensors and the network
fast enough to process that information and make decisions in
(13:49):
real time. And this is what makes Nicole excited about
the potential of five G with the ability that we'll
have with five G right, we'll be able to work
through those issues, especially the emergency services. If things were
to go down and there wasn't communication, we could spin
up drones with five G and very quickly be able
to get a network that we could then talk to
(14:12):
not only emergency services, which is the most important, but
also our citizens if they're in need of help. So
I really start to think about the value of five
G and what it can bring not to a community,
but really regions and then really across the country. Our jobs,
especially in city government right is to think about our
own community first, but as it grows, the value is
(14:35):
really beyond that because we don't all live work in
play in one area. Five G connectivity could also provide
an important enhancement to IoT by allowing the town's technology
to communicate directly with citizens compatible devices. So, for example,
we're building this beautiful new downtown park and we think
(14:56):
about leveraging IoT technology and regards to um environmental sensors. So,
in case you've never been to North Carolina in the summer,
it is very hot, So I think about, you know,
was there is there a way to look at that
censer and we can send messaging to the folks that
are in that park, right, So for example, you v
(15:18):
index hits ten reminder goes out via text messaging that says, hey,
we have these devices over at whatever locations that offer
some sort of sunblock solution, please make sure that you're
reapplying your sun block, as well as a reminder as
to where the water fountains are to make sure that
you're kept hydrated. So I think there's interesting ways to
(15:41):
think about the information that you're gathering in real time
and use it as enhanced services for your citizens. When
we come back, we returned to Chief Harold to talk
about some of the new firefighting technology he's testing that
will take advantage of next generation wireless connectivity. The future
(16:06):
with five G is coming today. T Mobile is leading
the five G charge with thirty billion dollars invested in
their network to deliver new capabilities. Improved connectivity and true
mobility provided by an advanced network from T Mobile for
Business could change the way we all live and work.
The five G era will take the best technologies available
(16:28):
today in the wireless space so that you can offer
new capabilities to your business customers. T Mobile for Business
knows that the future of business will be powered by
advancements in wireless networks. With these new technologies opening the
doors for better ways to get the job done. Business
is changing. Learn more at t Mobile for Business dot com. So, Kara,
(16:56):
would you sign up for those some block alerts? Do
you see how pale I am? I know this is
a podcast who they can't see me, but I'm quite pale.
You know. It's funny because when Nicole brought this up,
I was like, Yes, I would absolutely want this alert.
I'm kind of seduced by the convenience of it. Well,
we both live in New York City, which isn't always
the most convenient place in the world. So if you
were the c I O of NYC, what do you
(17:19):
do on day one? Two words? The subway? You really
are in New Yorker. One of the dilemmas I sometimes
face on the aforementioned subway is that the train can
arrive really, really crowded, and I know there's another train coming,
but I don't know if it's going to be any better.
So I've faced with that constant dilemma should I stay
(17:40):
or should I go now? So it might be cool
if you get alerts about helping you make better decisions
about which train to take. Yeah, you know, gathering data
for the sake of personal convenience or even to manage
a natural disaster could be extremely useful. But I would
want to be able to opt in, of course, And
there are questions of access to carry. North Carolina and
Menlo Park, California are both affluent areas. So as we're
(18:04):
building out new networks, and as we're still in the
building phase, we do have to make sure that we're
bringing best in class wires access to less affluent places. Yeah,
and that's something some of the wireless carriers are acknowledging
around the world. Next generation wireless is promising to play
a role in emergency services even beyond firefighting. You know,
imagine being able to stream ambulance activity to a doctor
(18:27):
before the patient arrives at the hospital. Imagine the life
saving potential of saving a few extra minutes using telemedicine.
And emergency services are Chief Chappel Hammond's bread and butter.
He's been working in the fire department for almost four decades,
and in that time he's not only been fighting fires,
but also responding to events like nine eleven and the
(18:47):
Oklahoma City bombing. So when he thinks about building technology
for a better future of disaster response, he has a
unique and broad perspective. Being able to help people was
where I started. I like working, I like being outside,
you know, I liked every aspect of being physical and
making a difference that we're able to do in the
(19:09):
fire service. As to fire Chief Harold not only has
responsibilities to the local community, but also to the firefighters.
The of disease and modern building techniques and materials sometimes
make that more difficult. It's not the old simple, you
know wood building anymore. That's burning. I mean these structures
(19:29):
that has contents and or consumable components. It's a much
more toxic environment for our firefighters. We're exposing these folks
not just to the stresses the physical and the mental
as well, but equally. We have a huge seen a
huge change in the amount of cancer related events that
we're being exposed to because the changes today and the
(19:51):
way things are made. There's a lot more petroleum based
products and everything that's out there in the form of
plastics and the form of other types of treatments for products.
And it's a difficult job to do, and we've got
people who are willing to do it, which is amazing.
They charge head on into these things. For the chief,
new technology is not just about the wonder of innovation
(20:12):
or the bottom line, it's about saving lives. And this
means he always has an ear out for the products
that are pushing the frontiers of firefighting forward. I try
and work with people who innovate and create ahead of
time and allow them either through our burn training facility
or by working with us to refine their products so
(20:32):
they actually do work for us. I mean, we need tools,
not toys, and we don't have time to sit around
and play with things that don't work. One of the
biggest problems that technology could play a powerful role in
mitigating is the difficulty of navigating a fire. Crawling through
a burning building, you can't see anything. You're almost better
(20:55):
to close your eyes so that you know, you focus
on your other senses of what do I hear? So
if I hear somebody crying out, if I hear the fire,
because I can hear the crackling sound, the moving sounds
to assist five fighters and enhance their senses, The chief
has long been interested in a product that combines thermal
imaging and augmented reality. The problem is that early versions
(21:19):
were just not practical. What's thermal imaging was invented. The
early versions were helmet mattered. They were huge. I'm surprised
didn't break somebody's neck. The thing was so big. It
wasn't functional at least in a field environment. But according
to Harold, that could all be changing. He and his
department have been working with a company called Quake to
develop and test a new fire fighting tool called see Through.
(21:42):
As we talked about in the last episode of this podcast,
the higher data rates, lower latency and remote processing promised
by five G could make mobile VR and a our
devices much more feasible. We're working with Quake right now
to develop a item that either goes on your helmet
or goes in your mask and both allow you hands
(22:03):
free now to see into the fire. But even better,
they use like a green screen bordering technology that then
allows us to frame things and you know, then allows
us to see what's the heat levels and so forth.
So we put it on a bunch of our firefighters
and then ran them through our fire simulation building, so
it was full of smoke and heat and as close
(22:25):
to real conditions as you can duplicate. And not only
did were they more efficient in finding the victim and
getting them out in a shorter period of time. All
of them said, we want this now. This technology would
make us better, It would make us more efficient. My
(22:46):
gain is if this company can be successful and put
that new technology into every firefighter's hands, then you know,
that's a huge improvement for our industry. Harold's career goes
back decades, but as enthusiasm for technology was more of
an evolution. I was on a committee with the National
Instant Science and Technology after nine eleven. I was a
(23:08):
naysayer of the robots that were brought there. In fact,
we've come a long way since the early two thousands,
where all we envisioned was aerial robots, to where we're
literally able to fly that technology today and not expend
a whole bunch of money to do it. Those aerial
robots that Harold was skeptical of other predecessors to drones,
(23:32):
tool that Harold now believes could be transformative for five
fighting and that could also be further enabled by five G.
Drones are amazing pieces of equipment put in the hands
of public safety personnel who would use them for good.
I mean literally last year we were flying on the
camp fire doing remote searches, and also that was the
(23:53):
third disaster that we had mapped within days to where
the public could go to a site and look through
a panoramic of all these different kind of piece together
digitized flights that were done and not only see their address,
but be able to zoom in and do a three
sixty on whether it was still there, what your neighborhood
(24:16):
looked like, and everything right after the fire for damage assessment.
As ever, we have to keep privacy considerations top of mind,
but you sensitively new technologies being developed by businesses in
consultation with local governments have the potential to save lives,
and the higher data rates and lower powered senses promised
(24:36):
by the next generation of wireless connectivity could make these
tools all the more powerful. Five G to me is
it's a bigger pipe, and so that bigger pipe allows
me to get data and other information I could have
never gotten before. By having that bigger pipe, you could actually,
at some point hopefully merge all these different technologies together
(24:58):
and have all of that in a face piece or
a helmet or a combination of both, so that we
truly move firefighting into the next century. My pie in
the sky, like I said, as a system that's able
for my firefighter to see what they're doing in a building.
They can see maybe what a drone footage over the
(25:19):
building looks like, so they can actually see where they are,
so they can be exposed to exterior conditions that typically
they won't be able to see unless they're outside the structure.
So how do I communicate that in So five G
to me is the pipe that could capture all that
information and stream it in to a firefighter's face piece
(25:42):
at the same time allow the instant commander outside the
structure to get it up on the screen like an iPad.
You know, all those different things are in play, and
I know there are people working on all of them.
And Harold is more than happy to work with businesses
who he believes can help him and his team achieve
two outcomes. I'm open to anybody, any tech company, anybody
(26:05):
who's a you know, an inventor, innovator who wants to
talk about making something better. I'll listen to anybody for
at least five minutes to hear their pitch, read an email,
whatever they propose. If it's something that's going to help
our industry and save life and property or the environment,
that's what we're about. Bottom line Available now from My Heart,
(26:34):
a new series presented by Tembilepha Business, The Restless Ones
join host Johnson Strickland as he explores the upcoming five
year evolution and the business leaders who stand right on
the cutting edge. There are certain decision makers who are restless.
They know there's a better way to get things done,
and they're ready, curious and excited for the next technological
(26:55):
innovation to unlock their vision of the future. These restless
ones are in suit of bigger, better, smarter, stronger, they
seek new partners, new strategies, new processes. They pursue innovative
platforms and solutions to propel their teams, businesses, and industries forward.
In each episode, will learn more from the Restless Ones
(27:16):
themselves and dive deep into how they think of five
year evolution could propel their business forward. The Restless Ones
is now available on the I Heart Radio app or
wherever you listen to podcasts. In this episode of This
Time Tomorrow, we've looked at the technologies that are being
(27:38):
developed to literally fight fires, and we've looked at what
it means to build a more connected city overall. And
a common threat is that both Harold and Nicole are
partnering with businesses, some of them start ups, some of
them well established firms, but they're creating a relationship where
the product can actually fulfill an application that a local
government needs. I do think it's important that elected and
(28:01):
appointed officials think more frequently about how technology can benefit
and also consider the unintended consequences. Well, I was struck
by what the chief was saying about new technologies enabled
by five G potentially allowing his five fight is to
spend less time in dangerous situations. Surrounded by toxic fumes
and allowing him to keep better track of them, and
(28:22):
that could save lives in the short term and the
long term. Yeah, when Harold started fighting fires, he would
close his eyes because he couldn't see through the smoke.
In the future, they'll be able to use thermal imaging
in their headsets, and it makes me wonder what tools
they'll be using in the way way future. You know,
maybe we'll become better at predicting fires using environmental sensors.
(28:44):
In the best case scenario, as technologies like five G rollout,
we're going to see a lot of promise in the future.
Better emergency care cities that make people's lives safer and
more convenient is something that all of us can aspire to.
On the next episode of This Time Tomorrow, we'll look
(29:05):
at how five G has the potentials transformed the world
of sports and explore more potential applications of augmented reality.
I'm mozvelushin See you next time, no matter what you're after.
T Mobile for Business is here with a network born
mobile and built from the ground up for the next
(29:25):
wave of innovation for mobile broadband to IoT to workforce,
mobility and everything in between. T Mobile for Business is
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products and services you need, as well as the dedicated,
award winning customer service you'd expect from America's most loved
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(29:47):
for Business dot com.
On last week's episode, we discussed the new opportunities in
the field of virtual reality. We heard from Evelyn Morales,
the former head of VR at NASA, Jeff Marshall, the
founder of Ovation, a business built around VR based public
speaking training, and Daniel McIntyre a K. Danny Mack, the
director of Community Corrections for Pennsylvania, where he has developed
an innovative VR program to help inmates prior to release.
(00:37):
Maybe it seems obvious, but business is changing, and much
of that change from digital transformation to workplace innovation is
driven by critical advancements in mobility. Thanks to support from
Temobile for Business, We're here to explore how five G
could enable innovations in the life saving efforts of first responders,
and how new applications could change the way we're able
(00:57):
to anticipate and react to natural disasters and emergencies. Well,
it's not at all like a scene in a movie.
The first fire that I was in was a building
fire in Hollywood. You can always see the flames, and
you know, they can always see each other. That's not
(01:18):
at all what it's like. Pretty much, you go into
a building and the smoke is down to the ground.
It's confusing. You can't even see the hand in front
of your face piece. That's Harold Schappelholman speaking. He's been
fighting fire since. It's very physical, right. I'm about six
ft three in height, and so you know. One of
things that's not intuitive is you've gotta get down as
(01:40):
low as you can to the ground and yet pull
charge hose lined into a building. They've got to fight
the fire, which means that you can't see it. It's exhilarating,
it's frightening. There's all these things that are happening around you.
At the same time, you've got to stay focused. One
of the most important elements of fighting of fire is
having the right tools. The old days, before we had hoods,
(02:01):
I mean it would literally burn your ears, so you
would have if you looked at older firefighters had scarring
on their ears. But that was also your temperature gauge.
When it got too hot, then you realize you had
to get out. So today they're much more encapsulated, which
also creates a problem because when something goes wrong, it
goes wrong in a bigger way based upon how far
away you are from the opening and safety. In two
(02:24):
thousand and six, Harold Schappelholman became chief of the Menlo
Park Fight District in California. That leadership role gave him
a new sense of responsibility to actively seek out and
sometimes even create new tools to fight fire. Real things
happened to real people, and a lot of times they're
sad and unfortunate. But on the same token, you know,
(02:46):
we're there to do a job and to do it
as quickly as possible, try and make it better in
some way, even though we're a little bit late to
the party. Sometimes I feel obligated, as the leader of
the organization as well as someone who did this for many,
many years, to not only bring innovation to the fore
for the benefit of the community, but equally to bring
it for our personnel so that we make them much
(03:07):
more efficient, much more effective protect them in the community
at a much higher level. It's no secret that the
community's Harold Protects. Menlo Park, pala Alto Stanford are some
of the biggest tech hubs in the country, areas not
just of affluence but also innovation. Facebook is based out
of Melo Park. Google, Apple, They're all down the street.
(03:30):
We're surrounded by really really smart, innovated people who either
work in our community or living it. I mean, I
don't know that every community has a Google car driving
around with the things spinning on the roof that's started here.
We're surrounded by it, we're immersed in it, but we're
also responding to it. Harold believes that advances in technology
can make communities safer by giving them more efficient tools
(03:54):
to detect and respond to all kinds of emergencies, and
that the advance is promised by five G, lower latency,
more sensors. Edge computing could radically improve the way we
respond to crises by enhancing communication, automating critical services, and
gathering real time data that could save lives. In this
(04:16):
episode will explore how emergency services are already benefiting from
new technologies and preparing for the five G future. And
we'll look at how one smart town is partnering with
businesses with the goal of improving quality of life for
citizens and responding better to natural disasters. I'm as Velosen
and this is This Time Tomorrow, a podcast about how
(04:37):
advances in connectivity could change the way we live. So
carry like these stories about how new technologies can play
a role in places we really think about them. Last
episode we're in out of space, and Harold was just
talking about the center of a fire. Yeah, you know.
They say necessity is the mother of invention, and trying
(04:59):
to make sure you don't float off into space or
get trapped in a burning building definitely makes you think
about building better products for the future. It's also the
second time in the series we've talked to somebody out
of Silicon Valley. In the first episode we spoke to
Andrea Goldsmith, who's both a wire as professor at Stanford
and the founder of a NASDACK listed public company. So
it's one of those places where business and technology come
(05:21):
together for innovations. And Chief Chappelhaman talked about using the
Menlo Park fire district to test out new commercial products
that can then be adopted more widely, and that pressure testing,
I think is important because the chief also warned that
innovation can sometimes be technically brilliant but practically stupid. Well,
I need to imagine a tech CEO actually fighting a wildfire.
(05:41):
They'd show up in one of those tech vests police police.
Let's say the name of venture capital for a moment.
But it is why it's so important that the design
phase is not done in a vacuum exactly. And later
in this episode, Chief Harold is going to talk all
about that and in particular how he thinks that the
data gathering and processing promise I five G could enable
new types of tools that will help his five fighters
(06:03):
be more effective and also safer. I read an interesting
statistic from McKenzie that globally, every second another one hundred
and twenty seven devices are connected to the Internet. That's
a lot of devices and potentially a lot of data
being gathered about us. And one of the people who
thinks a lot about all of this is Nicole ray Mundo.
She's the chief information officer of Carrie, North Carolina, and
(06:26):
she's very focused on partnering with companies to make carry
one of the most connected towns in America and oz
you know, you want to listen to this segment if
you're like, what is a connected town anyway? Just about
to ask A hundred and seventy thousand that's our population.
(06:48):
We sit right outside of we searched Triangle Park, which
is home to lots of headquarters of technology and biotechnology companies.
So it makes our role here a little bit more
challenging to make sure that we're meeting the demands of
our citizens. That's Nicole Raimundo. I wasn't entirely sure what
it meant to be a chief information officer in local government,
(07:11):
so when I spoke with Nicole, I was struck by
how she balanced a pragmatic approach with a kind of
contagious optimism about the future. My role is really about
looking at our current solutions and bringing us into a
modern state, but also really preparing us for the future.
So that means understanding emerging technologies and how we can
(07:32):
leverage those across the town. The term smart city, which
has little to do with the intelligence of the population,
has long been talked about as a way to boost
efficiency and improve life for citizens. But it's another one
of those terms like artificial intelligence, that sounds really good
in a headline, and as a result, doesn't have a
clear definition. So when we talk about smart cities, it's
(07:54):
a term that I actually don't like. Um smart cities,
I think confers it cities weren't smart before, which I
think that we were, And I really think about it
as building a connected community utilizing technology and data analysis
not only to optimize city functions but grow economic development
while improving the quality of life for our citizens. One
(08:17):
thing is clear. To have a truly connected city, it
will likely involve the expansion of the Internet of things.
Things like vehicle to vehicle communication or vehicle to infrastructure communication.
For example, where the light tells your car it's about
to turn red, so you should slow down. These are
all a part of the Internet of Things, and IoT
(08:39):
is already underway with innovations like smart fridges, lights, and thermostats.
But with the greater connectivity that a five G network
may provide, the ways in which IoT can connect us
will vastly expand. So here and carry we started to
think about what is IoT me knowing that it was
emerging and going to come very quickly, and we looked
(09:00):
at leveraging our town Hall campus and we offered that
up as a testing ground for companies to come in
and test their technologies, help us understand how to utilize them,
how to extract the data make better decisions, and we've
learned a lot from that. Making decisions when it comes
(09:20):
to local government often means making decisions for the health
and safety of the community. Nicole took an innovative approach
to a complex problem by partnering with a tech startup
and utilizing their new product carries a very proactive community.
We had the opportunity to apply for a grant through
Bloomberg and we had learned of a company out of
(09:43):
m I T called Biobot Analytics, and they had a
product that you put into your wastewater and test for
opioid consumption. During the process, though, we really thought about
what's the best way to use this data. And while
the consumption data that we received today isn't quite real time,
it takes about a month, that can certainly change the
(10:05):
game in how we as a community think about how
we can address the situation. I absolutely think in real
time that the future is being able to connect these
sensors via a network and to a lab. I think
that's something that they're probably working on because they want
to see that data in real time just as much
as the communities do. Whenever we think of data gathering,
(10:29):
the next natural thought is about my data and my privacy.
So I asked Nicole how the town balanced the issue
of data for public use and personal privacy. So the
issue of privacy, so it's top of mind, right, I
think that's everyone's big concerned we can't tell which household
it actually tests about fifteen thousand households. We can't identify
(10:51):
a person's home or even a neighborhood. We have looked
at should we develop data privacy policies. That's something that
we will continue to test that. Nicole works closely with
researchers but also businesses to test products and get them
ready for market. And as chief Information Officer of Kerry,
Nicole's goal is to look at how the town operates holistically.
(11:15):
So I think often the first cities that did smart
technologies really did them in siloed ways. But really to
get the value of how these all work is to
actually figure out how to connect them all together. So
let me giving you an example of how we think
about leveraging IoT technology in the day of the life
(11:37):
of a citizen that's going to benefit them. So, for example,
we have a sensor that warns us of a potential flooding.
That sensor then triggers a work order for our utility
staff to investigate. They investigate it. That triggers another case
into our public work staff to respond close the road,
(11:59):
which then try gears both our three one one and
one where they're going to get updates, could be video
from a drone, right, which we can accurately respond to
citizen and media inquiries. As Nicole tells it, soon the
whole town starts working automatically to mitigate the spread of
potential flooding. Then this data right is also sent to
(12:20):
our intelligent traffic network that's going to adjust the timing
on nearby intersections and accommodate our traffic roots. It's also
going to send that same data out to ways, which
will redirect right private vehicles around the issue. Also gonna
get the data to our public safety, our cats system,
our transit system notifying police, fire bus units so everyone
(12:43):
can be diverted around this area. It can also send
the information out for public service announcement right, So, whether
that's text, messaging, social so Twitter, Facebook, notifying our community
to avoid the area and what's going on. Nicole explained
to me that what she us described was complete, which
begged the question, what does the future look like for
(13:06):
a town like Carry. The work that we're doing and
Carry is phenomenal, but we don't have walls around Carry. Right.
I live in a community, I drive to another community,
I'm running around two different other municipalities, which I think
is fairly similar to everyone's lives. We're running from place
to place to place, tornadoes, hurricanes, they don't know town limits,
(13:28):
So that requires a lot of communication between a lot
of people, a lot of emergency services. And what does
that look like. That looks like the combination of information
for hundreds or even thousands of sensors and the network
fast enough to process that information and make decisions in
(13:49):
real time. And this is what makes Nicole excited about
the potential of five G with the ability that we'll
have with five G right, we'll be able to work
through those issues, especially the emergency services. If things were
to go down and there wasn't communication, we could spin
up drones with five G and very quickly be able
to get a network that we could then talk to
(14:12):
not only emergency services, which is the most important, but
also our citizens if they're in need of help. So
I really start to think about the value of five
G and what it can bring not to a community,
but really regions and then really across the country. Our jobs,
especially in city government right is to think about our
own community first, but as it grows, the value is
(14:35):
really beyond that because we don't all live work in
play in one area. Five G connectivity could also provide
an important enhancement to IoT by allowing the town's technology
to communicate directly with citizens compatible devices. So, for example,
we're building this beautiful new downtown park and we think
(14:56):
about leveraging IoT technology and regards to um environmental sensors. So,
in case you've never been to North Carolina in the summer,
it is very hot, So I think about, you know,
was there is there a way to look at that
censer and we can send messaging to the folks that
are in that park, right, So for example, you v
(15:18):
index hits ten reminder goes out via text messaging that says, hey,
we have these devices over at whatever locations that offer
some sort of sunblock solution, please make sure that you're
reapplying your sun block, as well as a reminder as
to where the water fountains are to make sure that
you're kept hydrated. So I think there's interesting ways to
(15:41):
think about the information that you're gathering in real time
and use it as enhanced services for your citizens. When
we come back, we returned to Chief Harold to talk
about some of the new firefighting technology he's testing that
will take advantage of next generation wireless connectivity. The future
(16:06):
with five G is coming today. T Mobile is leading
the five G charge with thirty billion dollars invested in
their network to deliver new capabilities. Improved connectivity and true
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Business could change the way we all live and work.
The five G era will take the best technologies available
(16:28):
today in the wireless space so that you can offer
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knows that the future of business will be powered by
advancements in wireless networks. With these new technologies opening the
doors for better ways to get the job done. Business
is changing. Learn more at t Mobile for Business dot com. So, Kara,
(16:56):
would you sign up for those some block alerts? Do
you see how pale I am? I know this is
a podcast who they can't see me, but I'm quite pale.
You know. It's funny because when Nicole brought this up,
I was like, Yes, I would absolutely want this alert.
I'm kind of seduced by the convenience of it. Well,
we both live in New York City, which isn't always
the most convenient place in the world. So if you
were the c I O of NYC, what do you
(17:19):
do on day one? Two words? The subway? You really
are in New Yorker. One of the dilemmas I sometimes
face on the aforementioned subway is that the train can
arrive really, really crowded, and I know there's another train coming,
but I don't know if it's going to be any better.
So I've faced with that constant dilemma should I stay
(17:40):
or should I go now? So it might be cool
if you get alerts about helping you make better decisions
about which train to take. Yeah, you know, gathering data
for the sake of personal convenience or even to manage
a natural disaster could be extremely useful. But I would
want to be able to opt in, of course, And
there are questions of access to carry. North Carolina and
Menlo Park, California are both affluent areas. So as we're
(18:04):
building out new networks, and as we're still in the
building phase, we do have to make sure that we're
bringing best in class wires access to less affluent places. Yeah,
and that's something some of the wireless carriers are acknowledging
around the world. Next generation wireless is promising to play
a role in emergency services even beyond firefighting. You know,
imagine being able to stream ambulance activity to a doctor
(18:27):
before the patient arrives at the hospital. Imagine the life
saving potential of saving a few extra minutes using telemedicine.
And emergency services are Chief Chappel Hammond's bread and butter.
He's been working in the fire department for almost four decades,
and in that time he's not only been fighting fires,
but also responding to events like nine eleven and the
(18:47):
Oklahoma City bombing. So when he thinks about building technology
for a better future of disaster response, he has a
unique and broad perspective. Being able to help people was
where I started. I like working, I like being outside,
you know, I liked every aspect of being physical and
making a difference that we're able to do in the
(19:09):
fire service. As to fire Chief Harold not only has
responsibilities to the local community, but also to the firefighters.
The of disease and modern building techniques and materials sometimes
make that more difficult. It's not the old simple, you
know wood building anymore. That's burning. I mean these structures
(19:29):
that has contents and or consumable components. It's a much
more toxic environment for our firefighters. We're exposing these folks
not just to the stresses the physical and the mental
as well, but equally. We have a huge seen a
huge change in the amount of cancer related events that
we're being exposed to because the changes today and the
(19:51):
way things are made. There's a lot more petroleum based
products and everything that's out there in the form of
plastics and the form of other types of treatments for products.
And it's a difficult job to do, and we've got
people who are willing to do it, which is amazing.
They charge head on into these things. For the chief,
new technology is not just about the wonder of innovation
(20:12):
or the bottom line, it's about saving lives. And this
means he always has an ear out for the products
that are pushing the frontiers of firefighting forward. I try
and work with people who innovate and create ahead of
time and allow them either through our burn training facility
or by working with us to refine their products so
(20:32):
they actually do work for us. I mean, we need tools,
not toys, and we don't have time to sit around
and play with things that don't work. One of the
biggest problems that technology could play a powerful role in
mitigating is the difficulty of navigating a fire. Crawling through
a burning building, you can't see anything. You're almost better
(20:55):
to close your eyes so that you know, you focus
on your other senses of what do I hear? So
if I hear somebody crying out, if I hear the fire,
because I can hear the crackling sound, the moving sounds
to assist five fighters and enhance their senses, The chief
has long been interested in a product that combines thermal
imaging and augmented reality. The problem is that early versions
(21:19):
were just not practical. What's thermal imaging was invented. The
early versions were helmet mattered. They were huge. I'm surprised
didn't break somebody's neck. The thing was so big. It
wasn't functional at least in a field environment. But according
to Harold, that could all be changing. He and his
department have been working with a company called Quake to
develop and test a new fire fighting tool called see Through.
(21:42):
As we talked about in the last episode of this podcast,
the higher data rates, lower latency and remote processing promised
by five G could make mobile VR and a our
devices much more feasible. We're working with Quake right now
to develop a item that either goes on your helmet
or goes in your mask and both allow you hands
(22:03):
free now to see into the fire. But even better,
they use like a green screen bordering technology that then
allows us to frame things and you know, then allows
us to see what's the heat levels and so forth.
So we put it on a bunch of our firefighters
and then ran them through our fire simulation building, so
it was full of smoke and heat and as close
(22:25):
to real conditions as you can duplicate. And not only
did were they more efficient in finding the victim and
getting them out in a shorter period of time. All
of them said, we want this now. This technology would
make us better, It would make us more efficient. My
(22:46):
gain is if this company can be successful and put
that new technology into every firefighter's hands, then you know,
that's a huge improvement for our industry. Harold's career goes
back decades, but as enthusiasm for technology was more of
an evolution. I was on a committee with the National
Instant Science and Technology after nine eleven. I was a
(23:08):
naysayer of the robots that were brought there. In fact,
we've come a long way since the early two thousands,
where all we envisioned was aerial robots, to where we're
literally able to fly that technology today and not expend
a whole bunch of money to do it. Those aerial
robots that Harold was skeptical of other predecessors to drones,
(23:32):
tool that Harold now believes could be transformative for five
fighting and that could also be further enabled by five G.
Drones are amazing pieces of equipment put in the hands
of public safety personnel who would use them for good.
I mean literally last year we were flying on the
camp fire doing remote searches, and also that was the
(23:53):
third disaster that we had mapped within days to where
the public could go to a site and look through
a panoramic of all these different kind of piece together
digitized flights that were done and not only see their address,
but be able to zoom in and do a three
sixty on whether it was still there, what your neighborhood
(24:16):
looked like, and everything right after the fire for damage assessment.
As ever, we have to keep privacy considerations top of mind,
but you sensitively new technologies being developed by businesses in
consultation with local governments have the potential to save lives,
and the higher data rates and lower powered senses promised
(24:36):
by the next generation of wireless connectivity could make these
tools all the more powerful. Five G to me is
it's a bigger pipe, and so that bigger pipe allows
me to get data and other information I could have
never gotten before. By having that bigger pipe, you could actually,
at some point hopefully merge all these different technologies together
(24:58):
and have all of that in a face piece or
a helmet or a combination of both, so that we
truly move firefighting into the next century. My pie in
the sky, like I said, as a system that's able
for my firefighter to see what they're doing in a building.
They can see maybe what a drone footage over the
(25:19):
building looks like, so they can actually see where they are,
so they can be exposed to exterior conditions that typically
they won't be able to see unless they're outside the structure.
So how do I communicate that in So five G
to me is the pipe that could capture all that
information and stream it in to a firefighter's face piece
(25:42):
at the same time allow the instant commander outside the
structure to get it up on the screen like an iPad.
You know, all those different things are in play, and
I know there are people working on all of them.
And Harold is more than happy to work with businesses
who he believes can help him and his team achieve
two outcomes. I'm open to anybody, any tech company, anybody
(26:05):
who's a you know, an inventor, innovator who wants to
talk about making something better. I'll listen to anybody for
at least five minutes to hear their pitch, read an email,
whatever they propose. If it's something that's going to help
our industry and save life and property or the environment,
that's what we're about. Bottom line Available now from My Heart,
(26:34):
a new series presented by Tembilepha Business, The Restless Ones
join host Johnson Strickland as he explores the upcoming five
year evolution and the business leaders who stand right on
the cutting edge. There are certain decision makers who are restless.
They know there's a better way to get things done,
and they're ready, curious and excited for the next technological
(26:55):
innovation to unlock their vision of the future. These restless
ones are in suit of bigger, better, smarter, stronger, they
seek new partners, new strategies, new processes. They pursue innovative
platforms and solutions to propel their teams, businesses, and industries forward.
In each episode, will learn more from the Restless Ones
(27:16):
themselves and dive deep into how they think of five
year evolution could propel their business forward. The Restless Ones
is now available on the I Heart Radio app or
wherever you listen to podcasts. In this episode of This
Time Tomorrow, we've looked at the technologies that are being
(27:38):
developed to literally fight fires, and we've looked at what
it means to build a more connected city overall. And
a common threat is that both Harold and Nicole are
partnering with businesses, some of them start ups, some of
them well established firms, but they're creating a relationship where
the product can actually fulfill an application that a local
government needs. I do think it's important that elected and
(28:01):
appointed officials think more frequently about how technology can benefit
and also consider the unintended consequences. Well, I was struck
by what the chief was saying about new technologies enabled
by five G potentially allowing his five fight is to
spend less time in dangerous situations. Surrounded by toxic fumes
and allowing him to keep better track of them, and
(28:22):
that could save lives in the short term and the
long term. Yeah, when Harold started fighting fires, he would
close his eyes because he couldn't see through the smoke.
In the future, they'll be able to use thermal imaging
in their headsets, and it makes me wonder what tools
they'll be using in the way way future. You know,
maybe we'll become better at predicting fires using environmental sensors.
(28:44):
In the best case scenario, as technologies like five G rollout,
we're going to see a lot of promise in the future.
Better emergency care cities that make people's lives safer and
more convenient is something that all of us can aspire to.
On the next episode of This Time Tomorrow, we'll look
(29:05):
at how five G has the potentials transformed the world
of sports and explore more potential applications of augmented reality.
I'm mozvelushin See you next time, no matter what you're after.
T Mobile for Business is here with a network born
mobile and built from the ground up for the next
(29:25):
wave of innovation for mobile broadband to IoT to workforce,
mobility and everything in between. T Mobile for Business is
committed to helping you move your business forward with the
products and services you need, as well as the dedicated,
award winning customer service you'd expect from America's most loved
wireless company. Business is changing. Learn more at t Mobile
(29:47):
for Business dot com.
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