Marine Corps Capt. Carrick Longley briefed General James F. Amos, recently confirmed Marine Corps Commandant, on the field data collection smart phone application known as Field Information Support Tool (FIST), Sept. 24.

“There was an interest in demonstrating to Gen. Amos one of the many research projects that Marines are doing at NPS,” said Longley. “We’ve been fortunate to have a good amount of exposure with FIST, and it was a good feeling to brief the Assistant Commandant about our work.”

Developed by Longley and Army CW3 Chad Machiela under the guidance of Information Sciences Research Associate James Ehlert and the Co-Directors of the Common Operational Research Environment (CORE) Lab in the Defense Analysis Department, Prof. Nancy Roberts and Assistant Professor Sean Everton, FIST is already being used to assist in disaster management exercises and is deployed in a prototype capacity in Afghanistan.

FIST was recently used in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia during exercise Gobi Wolf, a disaster management exercise held by the U.S. Department of Defense and the Mongolian government. Executed by DoD’s Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance, a direct reporting unit to the Pacific Command (USPACOM), Gobi Wolf culminated in a simulated complex mining disaster that involved a mine site explosion, trapped miners, a small chemical spill at the mine entrance, civil discontent at the mine site, and a major hazardous material spill at a secondary site.

Real-world application of FIST also includes use during Pacific Endeavor 2010 where communication technology experts tested their abilities to rapidly establish a communication infrastructure during a natural disaster scenario. Sixteen Asia-Pacific militaries participated in Pacific Endeavor, as well as non-governmental organizations and private industry. “During Pacific Endeavor, we were collecting data and sending it through cell phone networks,” said Longley.

FIST is also deployed in a prototype capacity in Afghanistan with the Village Stability Platform. Longley designed the knowledge management system for his master’s thesis in Information Warfare Systems Engineering at NPS.