Airys
In 2023, the United States broke a grim record with 28 billion-dollar extreme weather catastrophes, causing $93 billion in damages. In October 2024, Hurricanes Helene and Milton caused an estimated $50 billion each. The task of building resilience against such extreme weather events falls upon a mosaic of 90,000 local government entities. Many of these communities are understaffed and ill-equipped to assemble large-scale funding needed for resilient infrastructure.
The historic investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) present an unprecedented opportunity for governments across the country to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change. Beyond this, there are over a trillion dollars in value of grants, tax exemptions, and credits that the federal government provides annually to state and local governments. However, equity issues persist in dispersing the federal dollars to under-resourced communities who need it the most, due to lack of capacity to apply and administer these funding opportunities. As it stands, each federal agency (e.g. HUD, EPA, FEMA) has a siloed approach to communicate its data and available funding programs. Across all the federal agencies, it is altogether overwhelming – in our 170 user interviews, we saw communities and practitioners alike yearn for a simplified and user-centric process. Airys is a student team building a web-based software platform that provides local governments a single storefront for disaster risk data and uses AI to match projects with active and upcoming grants across all federal agencies.
Team Members
Charles Shi (MS, Management Science and Engineering + BS, Symbolic Systems); Shayana Venukanthan (MS, Earth Systems + BS, Computer Science); Bhu Kongtaveelert (MS, Earth Systems + BS, Computer Science); Madison Fan (MS, Computer Science + BS, Design); PI: Prof. Khalid Osman (Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering)