Research team:
Konrad Grabiszewski, Diogo Gomes , and
Alex Horenstein
Available on: Android and iOS
Data Collected: June 2023 to September 2023
The Idea
Imagine that at this very moment, a fire breaks out in the building you are in. Your instinctive reaction is to escape, a fundamental defensive behavior. In emergencies such as floods, hurricanes, wildfires, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, terrorist attacks, or gun violence incidents, escaping quickly determines who survives. As climate change intensifies, such extreme events are occurring more frequently, and the evacuations they trigger have become a regular part of life for many.
Yet when danger strikes, panic often overrides reason, leading people to choose suboptimal routes that may cause injuries or death. Most escapes occur in public spaces, from offices and restaurants to plazas and cities, where design plays a decisive role.
Escapismo investigates how the architecture of public places shapes human escaping behavior. Understanding individual-level behavior is critical to designing environments that adapt to and account for human irrationality. This multidisciplinary project combines applied mathematics, behavioral science, and machine learning.
Escapismo was developed thanks to the financial support of KAUST and HEC Paris.
How It Works
The app presents a series of escape puzzles. Each puzzle begins with an analysis phase, which allows players to study the maze layout. When ready, they start the escape phase, where the clock begins to tick and the goal is to find the fastest route to safety.
Gameplay Preview
Research Output
Work in progress