Chair Rennes Métropole

Operations Models and Artificial Intelligence to Manage Disasters

The objective of this Chair is to provide decision-makers (public organisations, governments, cities, etc.) with decision support tools (mathematical models, decision support systems, software) to deal with natural (including pandemics/ epidemics) and man-made disasters (including technological disasters).

Many of us, regardless of experiencing a disaster in our city or country, have heard or seen about natural disasters (such as earthquakes, epidemics, heavy snowfalls, El Niño(severe weather changes), and…) or man-made disasters(such as technological disasters, industrial accidents, and transportation accidents) by the news in different parts of the world.

The objective of this Chair is to provide decision-makers (public organisations, governments, cities, etc.) with decision support tools (mathematical models, decision support systems, software) to deal with natural and man-made disasters. For example, developing logistics approaches to optimise vaccines’ production, delivery, and distribution nationwide is a relevant possibility.
Dr Reza FARAHANI ZANJIRANI

We analysed the gap in the region by studying the current situation and historical data (news, reports, etc.), workshops, interviewing key people in the Rennes Metropolis, and examining real-world practical practices, to be able to provide solutions based on distributed algorithms and real-time data processing on disasters (e.g., forecasting, transport planning, inventory planning, locating, etc.). In this regard, we gather some qualitative data to know the status of the disaster potential risks in the case area and then provide OM and AI-based solutions for them.

In the course of this research, we specifically utilise artificial intelligence to ensure near-optimal solutions to the problems raised (such as victim location and rescue, aid distribution, etc.) and decision-making models in Brittany/Rennes.
In fact, our goal is to develop analytical models for operations management and design an integrated artificial intelligence model to serve decision-making models such as the use of drones to save human lives in the event of a disaster.

A collaborative project

logo-IMT Atlantique
This chair project is led by Reza ZANJIRANI FARAHANI and will be linked to the IRISA research unit at IMT Atlantique (Rennes).

Therefore, this chair project is partially collaborative between Rennes School of Business and IMT Atlantique.