KENNESAW, GA | November 17, 2025
When natural disasters strike, quickly assessing damage is crucial to saving lives and rebuilding communities. Under the mentorship of Assistant Professor Da Hu, Kennesaw State University student researcher Kiara O’Neal is using drones and artificial intelligence to improve disaster recovery efforts and shorten response times.
O’Neal, a junior computer science major from Ludowici, Georgia, is one of dozens of students participating in Kennesaw State’s Junior & Senior Scholars Program, which pairs students with faculty members for hands-on research experiences. Together, she and Hu are developing a system that uses drone images to automatically detect and categorize damage to buildings after disasters.
“Our goal is to provide a tool that helps first responders know exactly what they’re walking into before they even arrive,” said O’Neal. “By training AI to recognize different levels of structural damage from drone images, we can help emergency teams respond faster and more effectively.”
Hu, an assistant professor of civil engineering in smart infrastructure at Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology, said the project can significantly reduce the time required to assess damage over large areas.
“Currently, agencies such as FEMA send inspectors to investigate each building one by one,” Hu said. “That process can take weeks. Using drones equipped with cameras, our system can cover a much larger area in a fraction of the time and automatically identify whether a structure has major, minor or no damage.”
The project builds on O’Neal’s previous research with Hu, which focused on detecting defects in bridges. That experience taught her the challenges of training AI models to interpret complex visual data.
“When we first started, we focused on detecting bridge cracks,” she says. “Now we’re extending that idea to buildings and teaching the AI to identify all kinds of damage after a disaster.”
Creating a reliable data set was one of the team’s biggest challenges. O’Neal and other students in the Cyber-Physical Infrastructure Resilience Lab manually label thousands of drone images to teach the model to distinguish between different degrees of destruction.
Once their AI system is fully trained, the team plans to work with local emergency management departments to test its effectiveness in practice. The technology could be used not only for hurricanes, but also for tornadoes, earthquakes and other disasters.
In addition to its potential impact on emergency response, the project has transformed O’Neal’s own academic path.
“When I first came to KSU, I thought I would just graduate and get a job,” she said. “But through research I discovered something I really love. It made me want to pursue a master’s degree or even a doctorate.”
Her dedication has already taken her across the country presenting her findings at conferences such as the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) and the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Southeast Conference.
“It was an amazing experience,” she said. “Presenting gave me more confidence and allowed me to connect with other researchers who are just as passionate about using technology to make a difference.”
As their investigation continues, both Hu and O’Neal are motivated by a shared goal: improving public safety.
“Disasters are happening more and more,” Hu said. “If we can provide a tool that saves time and lives, then it’s worth all the effort.”
– Story by Raynard Churchwell
Photos by Matt Yung
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A leader in innovative teaching and learning, Kennesaw State University offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees to its more than 51,000 students. Kennesaw State is a member of the University System of Georgia with 11 academic colleges. The university’s vibrant campus culture, diverse population, strong global ties and entrepreneurial spirit attract students from across the country and the world. Kennesaw State is a Carnegie-designated doctoral research institution (R2), placing it in an elite group of only 8 percent of U.S. colleges and universities with R1 or R2 status. For more information, visit kennesaw.edu.
