Innovator Profile: Zac Clancy, Disaster Tech Specialist
Zac Clancy has recently joined as one of eight new pilots on Frontier Technology Livestreaming. He is working with us to test the potential of drones to reach vulnerable populations in disaster and conflict scenarios. This is one of a series of profiles we are doing on the development innovators working on our programme.
Who are you?
I’m Zac, VP of Global DIRT — that’s the Global Disaster Immediate Response Team — a team within Help.NGO. We plow into the immediate aftermath of humanitarian crises, but we’re finding ourselves more and more involved in the longer term recovery and capacity building work.
What does innovation mean to you?
Innovation means comfortability. To innovate, you need real deep domain expertise and the problem needs to seem second nature. Only then can you start to identify patterns and think from different perspectives — and both those things are crucial for innovation.
Why does the technology excite you?
When we started, drones didn’t really exist in the realm of disaster response. But the potential for their growth in this space is huge. They are a natural solution to, for example, delivery of medical devices or scouting in hard-to-get areas via imagery.
We are a small team, and drones mean we can have a much greater positive impact — and use our (human) time much more efficiently!
What impact has the tech had to date?
The April 2015 Nepal Earthquake was one of the first times we saw how powerful drones can be. Even a relatively simple set of drones was able to provide incredibly useful imagery: destroyed roofs, collapsed temples, blocked roads and so on. We could prioritize resources immediately, but also figure out a plan for longer term disaster recovery.
Closer to home (for me, anyway), civilian drones helped the US Coast Guard in St. John following Hurricane Irma. They’re so much more efficient in helping us to locate sunken vessels. Searching by ship is slow and cumbersome, and drones are much cheaper and more agile than helicopters.
What are you hoping to get out of FTL?
In the spirit of lean impact, we are conducting a series of small tests to maximize learning on different drone platforms and modalities of flight. From what we learn, we hope to continue to spread best practices and present a set of standards that other actors could learn from. Our learning here could be catalytic in sparking future investment into this nascent technology.
For me personally, it’s great to be able to step back from my day to day role and partake in the bigger picture.
What interesting fact might we not know about you?
I’m an avid mountaineer, and have spent up to 30 days camping and climbing in Alaska’s Eastern Alaska Range. My work can be quite intense, so the time away in the mountains helps me recover and regain peace of mind.
