An innovative project, headed by a team from the University of Wollongong's SMART Infrastructure facility, is using Twitter to help address flooding in Jakarta.
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A group of students from the university are set to head to Indonesia next week to work on the Peta Jakarta project, collecting data from residents and visiting flood-prone areas.
Bachelor of engineering student Daniel Simpson was part of the first team to visit Jakarta, spending 10 days working there in November, just as the monsoon season hit.
The 20-year-old said the chance to work on a world-first collaboration, using social media to gather and display information was a key selling point.
"This is a generation Y project," he laughed.
"I liked the idea of using Twitter to help make a difference; the project really aims to provide a better bridge between locals and the government in times of flooding.
"People are using social media to find out or share information - our project aims to provide all that information in one place, in real-time, when people need it."
Researchers from the university have developed software known as CogniCity, which allows social media data to be collected and sent out through location-enabled mobiles. Research teams have also been able to map flood-related tweets and provide live updates for faster response times during flooding emergencies.
Mr Simpson said his team was also involved in "on-the-ground" research, visiting shelters, mosques and schools to interview residents.
"We worked with students from the University of Indonesia and the Jakarta Emergency Management Agency to interview people about their experiences," he said.
"We'd ask questions about crowding, whether they had enough food and water and what the sanitation was like; we'd also collect GPS data from each location."
The project is hoping to roll out the software to other cities worldwide.
For Mr Simpson, from Narooma, the opportunity to travel overseas, volunteer and gain experience in his would-be field was a no-brainer and something he'd recommend to other students.
"It was really the chance to use what I've learnt in my degree so far in a real-life context, that experience is just invaluable," he said.
"I felt like I got so much out of it, just for my professional development ... "