AI for Resiliency

Tuesday 22 September · Columbia University, Teachers College

AI is usually discussed as a force that divides. This track asks whether it can hold a community together when the weather stops cooperating.

Columbia's National Center for Disaster Preparedness studies what happens to people before, during and after a disaster: who gets warned, who gets moved, who gets left. GeSI brings the operators, technology companies and research institutions that build the systems those decisions run on.

Two panels map where AI and connectivity genuinely strengthen disaster readiness, and where they add complexity nobody asked for. Two case studies test the claims. ClimRR, the Climate Risk and Resilience Portal built by Argonne National Laboratory with FEMA, put localised climate projections in the hands of emergency managers who had never had access to that science. The World Cup case examines mass- gathering readiness across North America.

A dedicated Work Group convenes the same afternoon to carry the findings forward.