8th 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 29th
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