Skip to main content
Global Ties Global Ties
  1. HOME
  2. What We Do
  3. Projects
  4. Cruz Roja Tijuana

Cruz Roja Tijuana

 Cruz Roja Team Photo.jpg

Photo credits to Erik Jepsen, UC San Diego 

 

Prospective Students

We encourage people from all kinds of majors like Business, Public Health, Design/Cognitive Science, etc, not just ones in the STEM field, to join us. We are looking for students who can help with market/landscape research, reaching out to new partners, applying for grants/competitions/conferences, handling budgets and working on business models for the future direction of this project.

For those interested in doing more technical work, we will be working with mobile and web technologies: Django, Python, Java, Android Studio.

For additional information about the project, check out this article here.

Mission Statement

Our mission is to help residents of underserved communities worldwide make better use of their resources in emergency medical situations by providing them with technologies through software programming.

Overview

Presently, the community in Tijuana, Mexico lacks the ability to make efficient use of their limited EMS (emergency medical services) resources. They have only 13 ambulances for almost 2 million people, boiling down to one ambulance for every 150,000 people. Additionally, their dispatching process still involves dated technology such as radios and satellites. As a result, the time it takes for an ambulance to attend to a patient and deliver them to a hospital often can go from 30 minutes up to over an hour. By providing a software interface to allow dispatchers to visualize ambulances in real time, communicate directly with ambulance drivers/hospital employees, and dispatch ambulances more effectively, we can help them optimize resource usage. Thus, we will introduce more reliable health-care services for the millions of citizens in Tijuana, Mexico.

Our software consists of two main components. The first component involves a mobile application for tablets installed in all ambulances within Tijuana. The mobile application will be used by EMTs and ambulance drivers to track ambulance location, perform routing, and accept dispatching calls. The second component is a website dispatcher interface. With this tool, dispatchers can visualize the locations of all ambulances on a map, check their status, and dispatch them to areas of emergency. In addition, our software will help Cruz Roja determine the optimal placement of ambulances, compute most effective routes, and analyze the results of the dispatching process.

 

WebApp.PNG

If our work with the Cruz Roja/Red Cross finds success, our project can expand to communities all over the world that face similar struggles. Currently, a version of our website dispatcher interface is in pilot testing with Cruz Roja Tijuana.

Current Progress

CruzRoja-Winter-2021.png

  • Refining Dashboard
  • Updating Website UI
  • Refining Panic Button
  • Research Business Models
  • Creating Training User Videos

Areas of Focus 

Team members have the option of choosing which aspect of the project they would like to work on. They can freely switch between what they want to work on; they are not limited to only one thing.

Mobile 

The mobile end of the project is working with Android and Android Studio. So far, we have already implemented the primary features of the app like status updates, dispatching, and tracking. We do, however, need to work on bug-fixing, polishing, and other smaller but important updates. At the same time, we are trying to come up with other ideas that could benefit the users of the app.

Web

Members working on the web app are providing updates to improve its overall usability. Specifically, we are trying to adjust the web app’s ambulance dispatching system so that it is more intuitive to use and has fewer bugs. Furthermore, we are also cleaning up the calls, ambulances, and hospital pages so important information is much easier to see.

Server

Those working on the server aim to connect all the other teams work into one server so that the application can run smoothly. This includes receiving dispatch requests from the web app and delivering them to the appropriate mobile devices or ambulances as well as getting updates from the mobile app and sending them to the web app.

Business

Members focusing on the business aspect of the project work to secure funding through grants and competitions, handle budgets, perform market and landscape research, and develop business models.

Partner

Cruz Roja Tijuana aims to assist irrespective of race, economic status, or political creed of every human being whose life and health is at risk, providing efficient care in emergencies and disasters, and to promote the training of Tijuanans.

Faculty Advisor

  • Dr. Maurício de Oliveira

Undergraduate Advisor

  • Tina Reuter

Current Team Members

  • Alana Klopstein
  • Shubham Kulkarni
  • Dora Ogbonna

Previous Team Members

  • Justin Huynh
  • Nicolas La-Polla
  • Gokul Rasmi
  • Juliet ZZhuang
  • Sonia Rivero
  • Erin Songwang
  • Daniel John
  • Dominic Hu