8^th November 2001

EVACUATION SOFTWARE WINS COMPUTER INDUSTRY ‘OSCAR’

 

The EXODUS suite of evacuation software developed by the Fire Safety Engineering Group (FSEG) from the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Greenwich won the top award at the British Computer Society (BCS) IT Awards last night.  EXODUS was among seven finalists short-listed for the top award.  The award scheme, now in its 29^th year, recognises innovation and originality in the IT industry.  Previous winners include Marlboro McLaren F-1 Racing, SuperJanet and the Digital Audio Broadcast System.

 

"The judging panel was impressed by the overall quality of medal winners presented as candidates,” said Geoff McMullen President of the BCS and chairman of the judging panel.   “However, in deciding how many awards to present, we found two candidates to be of outstanding merit,”

 

“The winners not only demonstrate technical innovation, but also show how technology can be used to benefit society at large,” added Judith Scott, Chief Executive of The BCS.

EXODUS has become the leading evacuation tool for the safety industry, enabling designers to test more designs in less time to reach the optimal solution, free of the high cost and potential danger associated with human evacuation trials.  In many cases, the software can answer questions that cannot be addressed using conventional approaches.  Versions of EXODUS have been tailored to the building, aircraft and maritime environments where it has been used on projects in 20 countries ranging from the Airbus-A380 to the Sydney Olympic Stadium.  A rail version of the software is also under development. 

 

EXODUS uses a set of five core interacting sub-models (representing the Occupant, Movement, Behaviour, Toxicity and Hazards) to produce realistic people-people, people-fire and people-structure interactions.  The trajectory of all individuals is tracked as they make their way out of the enclosure or are overcome by fire hazards such as heat and toxic gases.  

 

In contrast to previous approaches, which treated thinking humans as fluid flowing through pipes ('hydraulic'), or mindless automata bouncing around the geometry ('ball-bearing'), EXODUS incorporates complex behavioural models with adaptive capabilities. Individuals have knowledge of the structure, an ability to react to communication, affiliative bonds such as family groups, individual motivation and queue recommitment behaviour.

 

“We are honoured to have won this award,” says Professor Ed Galea, founding director of FSEG.   “We have a very dedicated team who over the years have put in a lot of hard work to get us here.  Our sponsors, especially our main supporter, the UK Civil Aviation Authority, have supported our efforts since day one, which was over 15 years ago. They recognised the importance of computer modelling to safety analysis and the role that it could play in embedding safety in the design process.”

 

Prof Ed Galea                                                            Phone: +44 (0)20 8331 8730

Fire Safety Engineering Group                  Fax:       +44 (0)20 8331 8925

University of Greenwich                             email:    e.r.galea@greenwich.ac.uk

30 Park Row                                                  WWW:  http://fseg.gre.ac.uk

Greenwich SE10 9LS

 

 

FACTSHEET

There are three members to the EXODUS family of evacuation models and a fourth, railEXODUS is under development:

 

airEXODUS has been used by aircraft manufacturers, AIRBUS, Boeing, BAe and dehavilland to improve the safety performance of aircraft, ranging from regional jets to the  AIRBUS A380 SuperJumbo,.

 

buildingEXODUS is being used by design engineers and code enforcement agencies in 20 countries to improve the evacuation performance of cinemas, offices, sports stadia, stations, airports, hospitals, schools and prisons. Notable applications include the Dusseldorf airport redevelopment, Greenwich Millennium Dome and the Sydney Olympic Stadium.

 

maritimeEXODUS has been developed in response to the resurgence in the cruise industry, where the current approach to assessing evacuation safety is inadequate for assessing the larger ships. 

 

Prof Ed Galea                                                            Phone: +44 (0)20 8331 8730

Fire Safety Engineering Group                  Fax:       +44 (0)20 8331 8925

University of Greenwich                             email:    e.r.galea@greenwich.ac.uk

30 Park Row                                                  WWW:  http://fseg.gre.ac.uk

Greenwich SE10 9LS