Disaster Education in Mixed Reality

Extending Drawn Together so emergency managers can train, communicate risk and plan for disasters together, with help from AI.

Five people wearing headsets stand around a shared map floating in mixed reality in the lab, marking locations together.

Emergency managers plan for disasters together, around tables, maps and whiteboards. This UGA Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grant project extends Drawn Together, the lab’s co-located mixed reality system, to support disaster training, risk communication and mitigation planning.

Working with local emergency management professionals and the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, the team is customizing the system for planning exercises, exploring how AI and data analytics could support a common disaster-management data platform, and testing the system with the people who will use it.

A facilitator board with a prompt, timer and concept map floating in Drawn Together.

In the news

March 12, 2026

Presidential seed grant for disaster education with AI and immersive technology

A UGA Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grant team, led by Grace Ahn with Kyle Johnsen, is using AI and the lab's Drawn Together mixed reality system for disaster education and risk communication.