The ANSI Federation and standardization community are stepping up with guidance, resources, and initiatives to support public health, safety, and infrastructure during the COVID-19 outbreak. ANSI is monitoring, sharing, and promoting appropriate news to highlight these efforts. Suggestions for news items may be submitted to [email protected]. All submissions are published at ANSI's discretion.
ASSP Responds to COVID-19 Developments
The American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) is providing resources that help organizations respond effectively to the COVID-19 pandemic. The organization offers an article, The Safety Professional's Role in Planning for a Pandemic, covering how to create an effective telework policy, tips to educate employees on effective prevention measures, and how to address global responsibilities and travel precautions.
ASSP also offers a link to its recent webinar, COVID 19: The Role of the Risk Management Process and Its Impact on Pandemics.
For more information and additional resources, visit ASSP COVID-19 webpage.
ICC Debuts Coronavirus Response Center
The International Code Council (ICC) is closely tracking how the global novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is affecting the building safety industry. To support industry business, ICC has compiled aggregated information from the Code Council, governments, and building and fire prevention departments around the world. "We highlight relevant virtual products, solutions, services and best practices to support business continuity for the building safety community," the according to the ICC.
To learn more, access news and resources via the ICC Coronavirus Response Center.
GBI to Host April 14 Webinar: Health Care Operations: Implications & Actions from COVID-1
The Green Building Initiative, Inc. (GBI) is providing a 90-minute webinar for sharing information on April 14, 2020, from 3:00-4:30 p.m. ET, to focus on early lessons learned from the perspectives of design, engineering, and materials specialists who support safety and resilience in health care facilities amid the regional surges of COVID-19. Expert panelists will include Debra Harris, Ph.D., associate professor, family and consumer sciences, Baylor University; Jane Rohde, principal, JSR Associates, Inc.; Michael P. Sheerin, CEO, TLC Engineering; Shari Solomon, ESQ., president and founder, CleanHealth Environmental, LLC; and Vicki Worden, president and CEO, GBI.
The webinar has been approved for 1.5 LU/HSW AIA credits and is relevant to the following stakeholders:
Register for Health Care Operations: Implications & Actions from COVID-1 or contact GBI at [email protected] with questions.
Microsoft, MIT, and DOE's LBNL among New Public-Private Consortium to Mitigate Pandemics using AI
ANSI members Microsoft, MIT, and the Department of Energy's (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, are among members of a newly formed consortium, C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute (C3.ai DTI), which has issued a call for research proposals on AI Techniques to Mitigate Pandemic. The Institute invites scholars, developers, and researchers to embrace the challenge of abating COVID-19 and advance the knowledge, science, and technologies for mitigating future pandemics using artificial intelligence (AI).
As The New York Times reports, "The new institute will seek new ways of slowing the pathogen's spread, speeding the development of medical treatments, designing and repurposing drugs, planning clinical trials, predicting the disease's evolution, judging the value of interventions, improving public health strategies and finding better ways in the future to fight infectious outbreaks."
"We're excited about the C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute and are happy to join on a shared mission to accelerate research at these eminent research institutions," said Eric Horvitz, chief scientist at Microsoft and C3.ai DTI Advisory Board Member. "As we launch this exciting private-public partnership, we're enthusiastic about aiming the broader goals of the Institute at urgent challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as on longer-term research that could help to minimize future pandemics."
Researchers are invited to learn more about C3.ai DTI and how to submit their proposals for consideration at C3DTI.ai. Selected proposals will be announced by June 1, 2020.
Microsoft has also joined efforts with the federal government, industry, and academic leaders, including several ANSI members, as part of The COVID-19 High Performance Computing (HPC) Consortium, to provide access to the world's most powerful high-performance computing resources in support of COVID-19 research. See more in the official White House announcement.
National Institutes of Health Partners with FDA, America Makes, Department of Veterans' Affairs to Support Additive Manufacturing Industry Demands
America Makes has partnered with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and ANSI member the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to help ensure the additive manufacturing industry can effectively and safely meet the needs of America's health care workers on the front lines of the Coronavirus crisis.
The COVID-19 Health Care Needs and AM Capabilities Repository will connect the capabilities of the additive manufacturing industry with specific needs of health care providers. "This site will record necessary information from both the additive manufacturing industry and health care providers, and eventually include a pathway for designs to be uploaded for review to ensure they meet medical standards and can be downloaded for use in production," according to America Makes.
See more ANSI member efforts in the newly launched ANSI COVID-19 Resource Webpage Highlighting Standardization Community Response Efforts