Engineered to save lives

By Elizabeth Egan

O'Connor wondered why there was no technical solution to keep track of first responders’ locations during an emergency. 

He was told to talk to the “government guy,” also known as UB alum Ryan Litt (BS’ 05). 

O'Connor, who earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology, served as a volunteer firefighter in Grand Island. He was motivated to action after his captain shared the tragic story of two Buffalo firefighters who died in 2009 after going back into a burning building to rescue a person they thought remained inside.

O'Connor’s pitch: The pair create a tech-based solution to prevent this from happening again. Litt said he was surprised to hear a product did not exist, but market research confirmed the technology was not available. The duo quit their jobs and went all in on building 3AM Innovations, named for the late nights spent developing the company. 

Today, 3AM Innovations sells automated incident command software used in fire stations worldwide, as well as in multiple NFL stadiums, at Disney World and more. With Litt as CEO and O'Connor as president, their mission remains to create essential technology for essential workers.

Litt’s favorite UB course, taught by Michael Buckley (BS ’78, BA ’76), emeritus teaching professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, challenged students to use engineering to create solutions for societal challenges. Litt said that the experience of working with a team to solve a problem transferred perfectly to the early days of 3AM Innovations.

Litt and O'Connor’s first step was learning more about the needs of fire stations throughout the United States. They traveled around the country to visit various fire stations with funding from a National Science Foundation grant.

They identified a similar issue experienced across the stations—when a person leaves the rescue vehicle, their location is no longer understood. Assignments can be made in advance, but plans change quickly in a rapidly evolving emergency. 

Litt and O'Connor set out to answer the question, “How do we help when things don’t go according to plan?”   

While visiting a fire station, Litt saw something that made a solution click. 

During an emergency, Litt observed a fire chief take out two radios and lift one to each ear.

Later, he asked if the chief could listen to two conversations at once. The chief said no. He listened for intensity, and he needed multiple audio streams to identify if anyone got into trouble and, if so, find their location. 

From there, the team decided that the next step was to find a way to track personnel so that if someone got into a dangerous situation they could easily be identified and sent help.    

Litt recruited a roboticist to develop hardware that could interpret human movement and a former colleague as a software architect to help visualize it. 

They realized their success during a meeting when Litt walked around the room and discovered the software tracked him. The technology was matured into adaptable software that can be used to track a multitude of devices on a single screen. They partnered with Microsoft to integrate AI that could listen for intensity.

They called it FLORIAN, after the patron saint of firefighters. 

So how does FLORIAN work?

When a dispatch center assigns a fire station to an emergency, every firefighter’s device is activated. Their location becomes trackable, and their microphones turn on.

The commander can see everyone’s location as dots on the screen. If someone says “mayday,” the dot showing their location will glow. The commander can then quickly identify their location and determine who is in the best proximity to help.

FLORIAN can also connect multiple agencies and provide additional information such as weather patterns, hydrant locations, and detailed images of a location, offering crucial context for rapid decision making. 

When the crisis ends, tracking and audio shut off. 

The software can be deployed with smart watches, radios and more, but Litt said most users prefer downloading the app on smartphones.

FLORIAN is used in 36 fire stations around the country, including the Orchard Park Fire District.    

During the highly destructive wildfires that devasted Southern California in January 2025, 3AM Innovations met deployed fire fighters to distribute kits equipped with FLORIAN-enabled mobile phones and tablets. They partnered with T-Mobile to supplement devices and enable access to satellites, ensuring that they could get FLORIAN to as many first responders as possible during the crisis.  

“One of the critical things with wildfires is that they spread over many miles, so you can imagine that if you go slightly down the wrong path, it can result in being many miles from where you need to be,” said Litt, noting that FLORIAN has been used during numerous crises involving wildfires. “We hear people say all the time that being able to quickly see the safest path saves massive amounts of time and helps them attack the fire faster than they previously would have been able to.”  

FLORIAN also supports first responders at high profile events such as the Super Bowl, the Electric Daisy Carnival music festival and the Boston Marathon. It is used in NFL and college football stadiums as well, including at Highmark Stadium, the home of the Buffalo Bills. 

At these large-scale events, FLORIAN helps reduce response time for time-sensitive medical emergencies, such as heart attacks, by showing which first responder is in the best position to reach the patient amid the crowds. At Disney World, Litt noted, FLORIAN helps keep everybody safe and makes sure that emergency vehicles stay off the main streets, if possible, to maintain the magic of the parks. 

Drawn to computers from a young age, Litt recalled spending time using early versions of Microsoft on his parent’s computer, playing with floppy disks and figuring out how to access video games. 

When Litt, a Buffalo native, toured UB, he became fascinated by a newly opened computing center and immediately decided to attend the university. 

At UB, his interests expanded into neuroscience and math, but they were united by a desire to learn more about artificial intelligence and how it could emulate the human mind. 

Litt also made time for his other passion, music. He started a musician's coalition on campus and formed a band that briefly signed with Columbia Records and toured the country.  

He returned his focus to computer science before graduating in 2005. 

After graduation, Litt entered the Buffalo startup community when he was recruited by a local company that built web portals for internet service providers, cable companies and others. He had the opportunity to speak with the company’s CEO and learn about operating the business and how decisions were made on the front end that impacted developers, like him, on the back end.

In 2008, Litt joined the Buffalo News. He used his expertise to help solve a problem faced by print publications, reaching readers online. 

Litt facilitated the newspaper’s shift into digital. He saw the impact of this project in 2009 during the Colgan Air disaster when Flight 3407 crashed in Buffalo and people across the country looked to the Buffalo News for information.  

“Through those moments, I started to feel an epiphany of impact and see how I could code and make tech that could meaningfully change people’s lives,” said Litt. 

After the Buffalo News, Litt moved to Constellation Software. He worked with small-town governments to modernize operations, building software for thousands of municipalities to make simple things, such as paying parking tickets and utilities, easier for residents. 

At Constellation Software, his division grew to over 100 people and he also began to invest in the local startup ecosystem in Buffalo, becoming known as the government guy. 

“I used all the principals I learned at UB in computer science,” said Litt, who joined Bak USA after Constellation Software to manufacture purpose-built computers. “It is so important to have that foundation of principles because things are changing so quickly. I realized the greatest thing I learned at UB was how to learn.” 

3AM Innovations has been promoted by the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the U.S. Fire Administration, Microsoft and T-Mobile. FLORIAN has been presented at national conferences for first responders and the International Forum to Advance First Responder Innovation, where they connected with their first international client, the Singapore Civil Defense Force.

While the company’s focus has been on fire service, Litt said their goal is to expand into different countries and across other categories of emergency management. Since its inception, 3AM Innovations has raised more than $10 million in funding.

“Patrick and I get questions about how we’re doing all this from Buffalo,” said Litt. “I think being from Buffalo, we are extra motivated because we are proud of where we live. The city is small but there is a lot of charm and grit.” 

Litt remains connected to UB. 3AM Innovations has hired several UB students and alumni and has collaborated with UB research labs and faculty, including Paul DesJardin (BS ’93), professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and David Hostler, professor in the Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences who runs the Emergency Responder Human Performance Lab. The startup has also received support from UB’s Business and Entrepreneur Partnerships, including help with securing a grant from UB’s Buffalo Institute for Genomics & Data Analytics. From 2017 to 2021, 3AM Innovations operated from the UB Downtown Gateway building.  

Litt has returned to campus to mentor student entrepreneurs and judge engineering pitch competitions, such as the Lighting Talks at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences’ 2017 Career Perspectives and Networking Conference.

This year, 3AM Innovations was recognized with a 2025 Inno Fire Award from Buffalo Business First. Other recognitions include being named a GovTech 100 company and receiving a 2024 Unconventional Award from T-Mobile for Business, earning first place in the Innovation in Community category

However, Litt says his greatest professional achievement is being introduced by firefighters as a friend to the fire service.

As a volunteer firefighter, Ben Swart (BS ’19) jumped at the opportunity to work for a company that helps firefighters. In 2017, Swart—then a sophomore studying industrial engineering at UB—learned about 3AM Innovations from a classmate and quickly sought out an interview with Litt and O'Connor. He soon became the company’s lead mechanical engineer. 

Today, Swart is 3AM Innovations’ national account executive, bringing their technology to fire chiefs around the world. He also still serves as a volunteer firefighter with the Catskill Fire Company. 3AM Innovations provided his department with FLORIAN-enabled devices during a 2024 wildfire in Orange County, N.Y., providing critical support in tracking Swart’s team while they successfully protected homes during the blaze. The department is currently demoing the software for permanent use.  

“It is great to be able to work in an industry that is also a passion of mine,” said Swart. “It has been really cool to be a part of this company that has now grown to work with some of the largest fire departments in the country.”

Swart is one of nearly 10 UB graduates who have joined 3AM Innovations.