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Amer Nezirovic watched the horrible pictures of the devastation wrought by the earthquake in Haiti with sadness and frustration. “Because I was not able to help”, says the electrical engineer who studies at the EEMCS faculty. For the past four years Nezirovic has been working on a method to detect victims buried beneath rubble. The method, implemented in an ultra-wideband radar, shows where victims are located and what their breathing rate is. “We use high-resolution electromagnetic waves that penetrate the rubble and reflect from the trapped victim”, Nezirovic explains. “The device extracts any contrast from the movement of the victim’s chest on the one hand, and the stationary rubble on the other. It’s even able to detect heartbeats under favourable conditions. In Haiti there aren’t enough bulldozers and many hospitals collapsed. In such cases, it’s very important to work as precisely as possible and to know if victims are still alive.”

The thought of going to Haiti to take part in the rescue operation did cross Nezirovic’s mind. “But the nature of my research studies prevents any practical chances of taking part in the rescue operation in Haiti, since there never was an aim to develop a working prototype”, he says. “Also, the practical obstacles are many: safety, costs, insurance and the ownership of the equipment. It’s not that simple to just catch a flight and help. The radar also doesn’t work optimally yet; there is room for improvement, and much more research is needed. And if there is a working device, then people must first be trained to use it.” For these reasons, a large-scale implementation of his method in Haiti is out of question.
The current practice is to use dogs to locate people buried under rubble. “In future, dogs and radars should work together”, Nezirovic states. “Dogs are very useful to tell you that there are people under a pile of rubble. After that, radar is put in place to show where the victims are located precisely and if they are still breathing.”

Nezirovic says the images of the aftermath of the earthquake reveal that there is a need for radar devices for detection of trapped victims: “But this kind of research is still not looked upon with priority, although earthquakes are a recurring problem. For the past nine months I’ve been looking for funding to conduct more research on this method, but without success. A Dutch team of experts is currently helping the Haitians find victims. In future it would be great if they could work with a device that is being developed at a Dutch university. I plead to all those responsible, both nationally and on the European level, to further fund this research that could potentially save lives.”