Karla Dana '19
LIU Global Student Wins Verizon Powerful Answers Award
BROOKVILLE, N.Y. (November 19, 2015) – LIU Global student Karla Dana is part of an innovative team that has been named one of 12 winners of Verizon’s 2015 Powerful Answers Awards. The awards challenge entrepreneurs to devise novel solutions to social problems in three categories: Emergency Response, Transportation, and Internet of Things.
Dana is one of three founders of Disaster Mesh, a social corporation that aids disaster relief efforts through the use of a wireless mesh network. The network is comprised of several small devices (“seeds”) which are deployed to disaster zones via airdrop. Disaster survivors will then be able to connect to the network established by the seeds, allowing them to communicate with relief organizations and with each other.
Dana founded Disaster Mesh in the summer of 2014 in partnership with Katelyn Dunn and Margaux Giles. They have presented their invention at the Italian Maker Faire in Rome and at the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s “Design4Disasters” competition.
Dana is currently studying in Costa Rica as a first-year student in LIU Global, the only college in the world that combines full-time immersion into foreign cultures with structured classroom instruction, field study, internships and community service. Students in LIU Global study in eight or more countries on four continents during their eight semesters of study, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Global Studies.
Dana and her Disaster Mesh co-founders will be honored at a ceremony in San Francisco on December 9, where they could win $1 million to fund their venture as the grand prize winner in the Emergency Response category. The Disaster Mesh founders will also be part of a panel discussion of global trends in entrepreneurship and technology leadership led by Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post, and Marni Walden, executive vice president and president of product innovation and new business for Verizon. The ceremony will be hosted by Chris Hardwick (AMC’s Talking Dead and Comedy Central’s @Midnight), and streamed live on AOL.com and The Huffington Post.
“Karla Dana embodies the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship that LIU fosters in its students,” said LIU president Dr. Kimberly R. Cline. “Our students and graduates are an unmatched community of independent thinkers and global leaders who follow their passions, become global citizens, and change the world.”
About LIU
LIU is one of the nation’s largest private universities. Since its founding in 1926, LIU has provided high quality academic programs taught by world-class faculty. LIU offers 500 accredited programs to more than 20,000 students and has a network of over 200,000 alumni, including leaders in industries across the globe. Visit liu.edu for more information.