Twilio 2020-2021

Open-Source Disaster Response Application Templates

The Twilio Customer Engagement Platform can be used to build practically any digital experience, using capabilities like SMS, WhatsApp, Voice, Video, email, and even IoT, across the customer journey. Twilio.org, the social impact arm of Twilio, empowers more than 6,000 organizations to reach over 260 million people each year by responding to crises, providing life-changing resources, and inspiring action for good with Twilio technology.

The 2020-21 Twilio SCOPE team aimed to reduce the barriers to deploying cloud communications solutions to help people impacted by large-scale disasters by creating application templates that leverage Twilio technology and demonstrate immediate value to stakeholders. The team conducted user research with disaster response organizations to identify promising template concepts, then developed a template that helps volunteer coordinators to field inquiries via multiple channels, resolve common questions using an AI-enabled chatbot, and efficiently handle more complex interactions using Twilio’s programmable contact center platform. The template will be released as an open-source code sample on Twilio’s CodeExchange site and featured as a blog post on Twilio’s corporate web site.  

Faculty Advisor

Jason Woodard

Team Members

Anna Griffin

Jessie Potter

Julian Stone

Luis Zuniga