Binghamton graduate student creates public safety maps to help campus community

In dire situations, it is important to know where safety resources like blue lights, police stations and automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are located across Binghamton University’s multiple campuses. Thanks to the work of Ryan Kinsella, this kind of information is easier to access than ever before.

A graduate student in the Geography Department, Kinsella has developed a series of interactive public safety maps to provide easily accessible information to limit confusion during crises.

Kinsella began an internship program with the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) in fall 2023. Prior to his internship, in an interview with executive director Dave Hubeny, the concept of these geographic information systems (GIS) maps was brought up.

“They had this idea in the works, but they never really had the resources to produce it,” Kinsella said. “So I was happy to offer those resources and work with them.”

Kinsella, who received his undergraduate degree in geography at Binghamton University, worked on the project for a few months before it was launched live in November 2023.

The purpose of these maps is to help members of the campus community familiarize themselves with their surroundings, Hubeny explained.

“Those few minutes spent familiarizing themselves with the type and location of this equipment will be well worth the effort if an emergency occurs and the equipment needs to be quickly accessed,” said Hubeny.

Kinsella further emphasized the significance of these maps.

“When you couple that with emergency management where advanced planning is so crucial, where communicating important information in a format that’s easy to understand is so important, and really, where every minute counts when it comes to an emergency, you start to see the value of helping the campus community know more about the area around them,” Kinsella said.

The process of creating these maps begins with mobile apps that capture geolocation points. For example, someone helping to create these maps would walk up to a blue light and have their precise whereabouts pinged.

“In simple terms, that essentially gets uploaded to a web map that automatically populates. We use different tools to symbolize each point, add on additional information, and then, ultimately, put it all together and deliver that instant map that people see,” Kinsella said.

For Kinsella, this project has revealed a strong overlap between geography and emergency management.

“It showed me that, in an applied sense, the tools and techniques that we learned in the discipline of geography can be incorporated into emergency management to improve the community around us – to make it safer, more resilient, more sustainable,” he said.

Kinsella has gotten positive feedback from his professors and peers since the release of the GIS maps. Additionally, his supervisor, Hubeny, spoke highly of Kinsella.

“Ryan brought a new skill set to the Office of Emergency Management. His knowledge of, and experience with, GIS mapping provided a new method of communicating emergency preparedness information with the campus community. We are excited to continue working with Ryan on other projects and uncover more opportunities for collaboration between geography and emergency management,” he said.

Binghamton is one of the first universities to incorporate these public safety-oriented GIS maps, Kinsella explained.

“This type of work is done at different levels of government for cities, states, even private organizations,” he said. “But, it’s exciting to see it done in a setting like this.”