itinfraworld

VeepWorks: Transforming Internet of Things to Internet of Humans

CIO VendorAaron Madolora, Founder & CEO Jeff Landis CTO
On the bleak morning of December 14, 2012, the children and staff of Sandy Hook Elementary School had little knowledge that they would not be celebrating Christmas that year. 20-year-old Adam Lanza disastrously shot, purloining the lives of 20 children aged between six and seven, and six staff members making the shooting incident the deadliest at a high school or grade school in U.S. history. In the aftermath of such a tragedy, one cannot help but wonder how the outcome might have been different if those innocent souls had access to the knowledge that an armed anti-social was roaming the school compound.

“The birth of my first son juxtaposed with the events at Sandy Hook, made me question if I was really using God’s gifts to help make the world better,” says Aaron Madolora, Founder and CEO of VeepWorks. “The result of this self-reflection was our company’s mission statement—Endeavor to be EPIC in all things.” Where EPIC is an acronym for the company’s guiding principles to Empower Communities, Promote Education, Improve Health and Connect People and Possibilities. Using mobile, near-field communication, wearable, and robotics technologies, VeepWorks through their DREAM citizen engagement network empowers and connects people, families, organizations, and businesses to build smarter, safer communities.

Today, VeepWorks has joined hands with Shooter Detection Systems’ Guardian sensor that has incorporated the world’s finest acoustic gunshot identification software and combines it with infrared camera gunfire flash detection to produce the most capable indoor gunshot detection system. The stand-alone, smart sensor for indoor active shooter events combined with VeepWorks’ real time analysis and analytics can automate situational awareness and real time reactions. “Take for example, an active shooter scenario— we provide those in the impact areas situational awareness that helps them avoid danger zones and safely evacuate the building. We offer users with the important information they need in order to respond in the situation,” explains Madolora. “Our algorithm prioritizes the ‘when’ and ‘where’ over the ‘who’, enabling users to provide valuable intelligence anonymously.” The system also shares the status of the user—health or evacuation process with their trusted network of close friends and family, without compromising either of party’s privacy.

The DREAM Network

According to Madolora, having accurate data is important but the precision of having that data at the right moment on time is even more imperative. For example, knowing someone had a heart attack is vastly different than knowing someone is having a heart attack. In that same vein, how do you put a name and a face to that victim while also protecting their privacy—the DREAM platform solves this problem by leveraging data abstraction, edge computing, and halo-centric social networks.

DREAM users first complete a profile and create private groups with their close friends, family, and colleagues. In the event of an emergency, these private groups are notified with the information of their loved ones wellbeing. The users also become part of an emotive human-centric design, which is tailored for the citizens’ greatest needs to help further enhance the company’s Citizen Engagement Network. The DREAM platform empowers individuals to be super-citizens—working in conjunction with professional civic services to safely assist individuals in emergency situations. With DREAM ordinary citizens become superheroes with the power to save lives just by being situationally aware of their immediate surroundings.

VeepWorks' smart, purposeful technology is where the Internet of Humans meets the Internet of Things to build DREAM communities


The current Amber Alert or Silver Alert System, for example, is broadcast to a large geographic area to maximize awareness. DREAM, on the other hand, can notify the users within a couple of feet that they are standing next to someone or something that has been reported as missing while at the same time using the phone’s network connectivity to anonymously broadcast and alert the DREAM network that a missing tag has been located.

However, the DREAM mobile application is one piece of the broader scope and implementation of a DREAM city. For example, if a school fire alarm is triggered, officials will know immediately the location of the fire alarm and have secure access to the live video feed right from their phone. “Using our on-site IoT appliance, or Iota, we can dynamically change the lighting and lock and unlock doors in the various parts of the building to help people navigate to safety,” asserts Madolora. “We can do most of this using their existing hardware, reducing both implementation time and costs.”

REPEAT Services Platform

At the heart of VeepWorks is their Rapid Engineering Prototyping Extending Adapting Technology (REPEAT) services platform capable of ingesting and translating data from any source. It is a communication bus designed to be completely hardware agnostic that can continue to deliver the situational awareness and contextualized data to the consumers even if new technologies are applied. “Our software-focus and human-centric situational awareness paradigm not only sets us apart, but if you think of the IoT as something akin to the vastness of the universe, our REPEAT API services platform is the gravitational force that will drive IoT adoption to critical mass,” explains Madolora. “Generally speaking, the state of IoT today is not unlike where desktop and personal computers were in the beginning. History will repeat itself and the impetus for adoption of IoT technology will come in the form of software and connectivity just as it did in the early 90s with advent of cross-platform integration software and the internet. The REPEAT services layer allows us to aggregate and contextualize raw data from multiple sources without increasing our own storage footprint.”

VeepWorks, is unique because the company is neither for-profit, nor non-profit, they are ‘for-purpose’ which means they place greater emphasis on partnerships, synergies, and innovation. The company is forging some strategic partnerships in cloud services, video surveillance, near-field communications, data storage, and mobile gaming. With these partnerships, DREAM will expand its Situational Awareness IQ from Public Safety into Healthcare, Education, and Philanthropy. Their recent partnership with the United Kingdom’s National Health Services through SoftServe, Inc. will deliver new preventative Healthcare solutions through IoT alongside partnering with the Barbara Bush Foundation and xPrize to deliver similar innovations in Education. “VeepWorks’ smart, purposeful technology is where the Internet of Humans meets the Internet of Things to build DREAM communities,” concludes Madolora.