Innovation to help first responders stay safe and do their jobs better is the focus of the Emerge accelerator, which spent three months working out of Tech Wildcatters in Dallas this summer.
The program, which recently held its demo day, featured apps, software, and devices that could, for example, help EMTs quickly communicate with injured victims who don’t speak English or keep firefighters connected with wired mouthguards that could serve as communications systems while in a burning building and when they cannot use headsets.
While the startups primarily spent their time in Dallas, the program also included field trips to Houston at the Johnson Space Center’s NASA campus and the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service in College Station, TX, which has training programs for first-responders in disaster scenarios.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced the launch of Emerge through two accelerator programs this past spring with the goal of supporting the development of technology that would help first-responders such as firefighters, police, and paramedics. The department’s Center for Innovation, which is located at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO, developed and oversees the program.
The second Emerge demo day will be in San Francisco on September 23.
