Rice University builds flood alert system that could help save lives Tags: Rice University builds flood alert system HOUSTON – Engineers at Rice University have developed a new flood alert system that can help predict where it could flood and help people safely evacuate before the water gets too high. “What we do is we take the rain that’s falling, we measure that really, really accurately and we use that to predict the inundation levels,” said Dr. Phil Bedient, with Rice University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Bedient, is the director of the SPPEED Center, Severe Storm Prediction Education and Evacuation from Disaster.