AMES, Iowa ( IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH ) - A team at Iowa State University has developed a tool to help residents living in homes with no air conditioning to stay safe during extreme heat.

If fully launched, residents could have an app on their phones to accurately predict indoor temperature compared to outside, warn them if conditions are getting dangerous and point them toward help, either through a cooling center or a network of friends and family.

An interdisciplinary team of faculty, undergraduate and graduate students used data gathered over nearly a decade to create CommHEAT, a prototype mobile app. It began as a project to catalog tree cover, building materials and more to help focus City of Des Moines’ efforts in urban sustainability.

Ulrike Passe, an ISU architecture professor a

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