U.S. Army and Nielsen Media Research Partner with Boston University School of Management to Develop the Technologically Connected Home of the Future

U.S. Army and Nielsen Media Research Partner with Boston University School of Management to Develop the Technologically Connected Home of the Future

Improving Family Life Seen as Key to Soldier Retention and Force Readiness

BOSTON, Dec. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- The Boston University Institute for Leading in a Dynamic Economy (BUILDE) today announced the creation of the "Technologically Connected Home Project." Led by a team of researchers from the School of Management at Boston University, this three-year project will seek ways to improve the daily life of Army families. The team will carefully study 450 military homes that will be connected as nodes within an interactive network of homes, facilities and service capabilities linked together through the latest technologies.

This research program, funded by major grants from the U.S. Army, and Nielsen Media Research, is part of the U.S. Army's housing privatization effort to rebuild 70,000 military homes over the next five years. Designated the Residential Communities Initiative (RCI), this privatization plan creates a partnership with the private sector to finance and build new military housing. Two of RCI partners, Actus Lend Lease and the Picerne Real Estate Group will be providing the sites for the homes as well as additional funding for the project.

"Make life better for soldier families and you can make better soldiers," said William Armbruster, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Privatization and Partnerships. "Army readiness is inextricably linked to the well-being of the whole family. A trained and ready Army requires that soldiers and families have the resources to be self-reliant both when the force is deployed and when it is at home. When deployed, soldiers need to know that their families are safe, housed, and have access to medical care, community services, and educational opportunities. If technology in the home can make that all possible, then everyone wins and the odds of soldier retention are multiplied greatly. Soldier retention is one key to an effective force."

The Technologically Connected Home Project will seek ways to improve the daily life of American military families, studying how health, security, home operations, personal learning and connection to community can be enhanced by networking the home with the latest information technology. Across the US, 450 military homes will have telemedicine, security, distance learning, and the Internet integrated into all areas of the home. These homes will be equipped with state of the art technologies, including voice-over IP, both wired and wireless nodes, high-speed Network Access, and remote sensor technologies such as RFID tags. By using a broad-based research bed of 450 families, there is greater potential for the findings to impact more than 70,000 military homes over the next five years.

The study will attempt to measure the enhanced value to the soldier and his/her family in three areas: home operations, personal learning and relationships, and entertainment. In the daily lives of the soldier and family, few things have more impact than the health and welfare of the individuals in the home. Thus, one major objective of the Technologically Connected Home Project is to explore how enhanced connection of the home with the health care system, particularly a hospital, can improve both the quality and costs of delivering health care service to the soldier and family. This study will also measure the impact of the technologically connected home on the training and education of soldiers; job skills and vocational training for spouses; enhanced educational opportunities for children; and family/deployed soldier connectivity.

"The home of the future is a key interest of our company," said Robert Luff, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Nielsen Media Research. As a major partner in this initiative, Nielsen Media Research believes that we can play a significant role in furthering the understanding of how technology in the home impacts families. "We are delighted to provide our support and expertise in the Army's effort to better understand how the technology in a connected home can improve the quality of life for the soldier in his or her family," Mr. Luff added.

Benefits of the technical capabilities that will be studied within these connected homes include:

* An Army medical specialist can remotely diagnose the sudden illness of
a sick child living on a remote post.

* Soldiers on 30 different posts spread over seven countries can take
advantage of a distributed learning network-one teacher, countless
students.

* The child of a soldier can complete her AP physics class with her
teacher in Texas via tele-learning, even though her family is being
transferred from Texas to North Carolina in mid-school year.

* A spouse can retain a lucrative job via telecommuting when the soldier
(and family) are transferred away from the physical jobsite.



"Making each of these 450 homes a connected platform integrating the latest technological capabilities can be done at minimal cost with the potential of very high pay off," says information systems professor John Henderson. He is the Technologically Connected Home research team leader at Boston University School of Management. "We have the opportunity to understand how the connected home of the future will change the ways a family lives, works and learns. I believe that placing the home in the center of a networked world will have a profound impact -- not just for the critically ill or the disadvantaged, but for everyone. This study is designed to give us a "real world" window into this emerging future."

About BUILDE

The purpose of the Boston University Institute for Leading in a Dynamic Economy (BUILDE) is to explore the effects of emerging information and related technologies on competitive markets and organizations. Its goal is to inform business leader's decision making by bringing to bear -- in real time -- robust data on the impact and implications of new technologies on their companies and the larger economic context. Companies that have participated in BUILDE initiatives include AC Nielsen, British Petroleum, General Motors, The Hartford, Johnson & Johnson, and Kraft Foods, IBM, Philips Medical, Pitney Bowes, Lucent, and Sears.

About Boston University School of Management

Founded as the College of Business Administration in 1913, Boston University School of Management develops leaders and builders for the networked-era, emphasizing management as a system of interdependent functions, decisions, people, and technologies. It is the only business school in the world offering the unique MS*MBA, a dual degree, next-generation MBA fusing a traditional management curriculum with expertise in the information technologies that are transforming companies today. The School's other offerings include undergraduate degrees in business administration; full- and part-time MBA and Executive MBA programs; a Master of Science program in Investment Management; a Doctoral program; International Management programs; and executive education.

The School of Management at Boston University is located at 595 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215. For more information, visit http://management.bu.edu/.

Dennis O'Connor
Peter Arnold Associates
(781) 239-1030; cell: (781) 883-5109
doconnor@parnold.com


Source: The Boston University Institute for Leading in a Dynamic Economy

CONTACT: Dennis O'Connor of Peter Arnold Associates, +1-781-239-1030,
(cell) +1-781-883-5109, doconnor@parnold.com

Web site: http://management.bu.edu/


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