Meta-search engine to help locate displaced people after Katrina hurricane

Louisiana Tech has reached further in its help to Katrina victims, this time through technology.

Dr. Box Leangsuksun, an associate professor of computer science, along with five computer science graduate students, has created a new Web site aimed at locating people displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

His hope is that the site will help streamline the search process. Other sites are available that perform similar tasks, he said, but they contain so much information that users can be stymied.

"Our job is to simplify (the process) so the user doesn't have to navigate through so much data," he said.

Leangsuksun said work on the search engine began because he couldn't ignore his desire to help others.

"After the hurricane hit, I kept watching TV and feeling depressed," he said. "I was in Thailand during the tsunami, and I felt bad because I had to come back to teach and couldn't help. I thought we should do something here to help the hurricane victims in some way. I feel like this is my second chance to help people."

Leangsuksun and the Extreme Computing Research Group began working on www.searchkatrina.org Sept. 2, and it was up and running five days later. The group members are Anand Tikotekar, Kshitij Limaye, Kiriti Munganuru, Sunil Sudhakar, Yudan Liu and Arpan Darivemula. All are originally from India except Liu, who is from China.

Though the team put in long hours and worked nonstop through the weekend, Leangsuksun said they feel good.

"If we can help one or two people find their loved ones, it's worth the hard work," he said.

Noting the site's user friendliness, Leangsuksun said, "Simple is beautiful."

Read more...