What if AI could fight fires? The first Nashville Tech Studio grant awarded by the Nashville Innovation Alliance fosters a collaboration between the Nashville Fire Department and Vanderbilt University that will analyze data to help allocate resources, determine optimal staffing levels and even predict future incidents.
Established by Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell and Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier in 2024, the alliance is dedicated to making Nashville one of America’s centers of innovation. As a newly launched alliance initiative, the Nashville Tech Studio leverages the expertise of Nashville’s universities and industry, piloting and deploying tech-based solutions that address some of the most significant challenges facing Metro Nashville.
“This inaugural grant marks an important next step in the Nashville Innovation Alliance partnership,” Diermeier said. “The Nashville Tech Studio will enable the rapid development of cutting-edge solutions for public safety, mobility and more, and accelerate their transition to real-world applications to improve the quality of life in Nashville.”
The alliance’s initial grant, Proactive Data-Driven Emergency Response Services, connects Vanderbilt’s Abhishek Dubey, Ayan Mukhopadhyay, Ammar Bin Zulqarnain and Jose Paolo Talusan is part of an ongoing collaboration with the Mayor’s Office, Metro Information Technology Services and the Nashville Fire Department.
“The Nashville Tech Studio will allow us to accelerate great ideas into real-world applications that improve the lives of Nashvillians,” Mayor O’Connell said. “The partnership between Vanderbilt and Metro Nashville government has been key to solving critical challenges, including transportation and emergency response. It’s encouraging to see the Innovation Alliance take on this first project aimed at optimizing emergency response.”
Researchers will create a tool to analyze NFD’s staffing and resource allocation to provide recommendations for optimal levels based on Nashville’s projected growth. This data will help NFD plan where to put new stations and how to allocate resources to improve emergency response time. In future phases, advanced AI algorithms will predict incidents and optimize emergency response.
“Our goal is to develop a tool that integrates seamlessly into Metro’s GIS system, making the analysis both actionable and accessible,” said Dubey, associate professor of engineering. “Our team has a strong foundation in working with the Nashville Fire Department, having previously collaborated from 2016 to 2018. This project builds on that experience. We aim to provide recommendations that ensure optimal station locations and resource distribution to enhance emergency response times. By utilizing advanced AI algorithms, we will provide data-driven insights that support long-term strategic planning based on Nashville’s projected growth.”
This pilot project came out of an existing partnership between VU and the fire department. “Metro had a challenge and reached out to us, their VU partners, to help think through innovative solutions that are informed by state-of-the art research,” Vice Provost for Research and Innovation and Chief Research Officer Padma Raghavan said. “The Vanderbilt team specializes in AI-driven decision-making and optimization. They have worked with agencies such as NFD, WeGo, NDOT, Metro ITS and TDOT to develop data-driven solutions and incorporate predictive modeling to anticipate future demand.”
The Nashville Tech Studio will work with Metro Nashville officials to identify other high-priority challenges. Once identified, Metro departments will be paired with experts at Vanderbilt and other local universities, as well as industry partners, to pilot technology-based real-world solutions to help address more of Nashville’s most complex challenges.