Transforming Infrastructure Resilience for Tomorrow

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Enodia team selected for Northeastern University Spark Fund Award to bring infrastructure resilience technology to market

The recent wildfires in Southern California have caused over $250 billion in damages and caused widespread power outages, transportation disruptions, and tragic loss of life and belongings. This disaster underscores a growing reality: extreme weather events and cyberattacks pose unprecedented threats to critical infrastructure.

From power grids to transportation networks, the systems that underpin modern society are increasingly vulnerable to disruptions. A single failure can trigger cascading breakdowns, leading to massive economic losses, compromised public safety, and prolonged recovery periods.

Most existing risk frameworks focus narrowly on single networks, failing to capture the complex interdependencies that define today’s infrastructure landscape. A power outage can halt transportation, disrupt emergency services, and cripple communication systems. Yet, decision-makers often lack the tools to fully assess these risks.

Jack Watson, PhD Candidate in Interdisciplinary Engineering at Northeastern, is addressing this urgent challenge through his project, InfRA-DST (Infrastructure Resilience Analysis Decision Support Tool), and the newly formed Northeastern spinout company, Enodia Inc. This suite of analysis and visualization software is designed to provide a comprehensive, system-wide view of risk, helping decision-makers anticipate vulnerabilities, allocate resources more effectively, and strengthen critical systems against both natural and manmade hazards.

InfRA-DST: A Smarter Approach to Infrastructure Resilience

Developed by Jack Watson, Prof. Auroop Ganguly, and their team at Northeastern University, InfRA-DST is designed to strengthen infrastructure resilience by providing a system-wide view of risk. Their work, supported by the Department of Defense’s SERDP Networked Infrastructures under Compound Extremes (NICE) initiative, focuses on ensuring that infrastructure is not just fail-safe but also safe to fail—meaning that even when disruptions occur, the system can adapt and recover without catastrophic consequences.

“Traditional resilience planning often misses the big picture,” says Watson. “InfRA-DST helps decision-makers assess risk across interconnected systems before, during, and after disasters— ensuring that investments in resilience are both effective and strategic, so that if something happens, systems don’t fail as poorly, damage is lessened, and things can rebound more quickly.”

InfRA-DST operates across different timescales, from guiding immediate post-disaster recovery efforts to shaping long-term infrastructure adaptation and resilience planning. It helps decision-makers prioritize resources in the short term while ensuring sustainable, system-wide improvements over years and decades.

A newly formed spinout, Enodia Inc., founded by Jack Watson, Auroop Ganguly, Rohit Bokade, and Dominika Dzierzynski, is working to bring this technology to market, translating research into real-world impact.

The Spark Fund: From Research to Real-World Impact

Watson and his team are ultimately focused on real-world implementation. With support from Northeastern’s Fall 2024 Spark Fund Award, which he received for his research, Watson will be able to expand the team and refine the solutions while leveraging CRI’s resources to build connections with key stakeholders.

“We can build models and publish papers all day, but until we’re working with those who are making decisions on the ground, we won’t have the impact we’re all striving toward,” Watson explains. “The Spark Fund allows us to sharpen our messaging and refine our tools to ensure our solutions are practical for the people who need them most.”

Read the full story at Northeastern University Center for Research Innovation

Written by Elizabeth Creason

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