MassacresSatellite technology detects, and may prevent, genocide
Many of the world’s worst human rights abuses, including genocides, occur in areas that are difficult to observe. “Smallsat” — short for small satellite — technology can detect human rights abuses and violations. The information collected by this technology provides evidence that can be used to corroborate refugee accounts of atrocities in international courts.
Through his pioneering use of small satellite technology to accurately detect and document evidence of human rights violations, Andrew Marx of the Spatial Sciences Institute at USC Dornsife works to prevent genocide
After graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1997, Andrew Marx worked with NATO, using satellite technology to help prevent genocide in Serbia. He was 22 years old. It was his first job.
“I was appalled that mass atrocities like this were happening in Europe in the 1990s,” he said of the genocide he observed being perpetrated by the Bosnian Serb army. “Every time this happens, the international community says this will be the last time. And yet mass atrocities continue to occur.”
Marx then served for eight years in the State Department, using similar technology to document Syrian government missile attacks on its own people. What he observed in Serbia and Syria had such a profound effect upon him that it has determined his subsequent career path.
Now associate professor of the practice of spatial sciences and creative technologies at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, his research focuses on developing cutting-edge technological tools to quickly identify human rights violations; preventing isolated events from developing into genocide.
“Once you work on something that powerful, you don’t really have an appetite to do anything else,” said Marx, a recognized expert on using satellites and other spatial data, such as crowd-sourced mapping to analyze and inform human migration and refugee policy.
Seeing into the dark corners
USC says that at USC Dornsife’s Spatial Sciences Institute (SSI), Marx runs the Human Security and Geospatial Intelligence Lab, leveraging new, “smallsat” — short for small satellite — technology to detect human rights abuses and violations. The information collected by this technology provides evidence that can be used to corroborate refugee accounts of atrocities in international courts.
Many of the world’s worst human rights abuses, including genocides, occur in areas that are difficult to observe, Marx notes. Satellite technology is often all that’s available to monitor
