ADSA27 Agenda and Presentations

Introductions

Welcoming Remarks – SENTRY & ALERT

Michael Silevitch | SENTRY
Michael B. Silevitch is currently the Robert D. Black Professor of Engineering at Northeastern University in Boston, an elected life fellow of the IEEE, the Director of of the Homeland Security Center of Excellence for the Soft Target Engineering to Neutralize the Threat Reality (SENTRY),  the Founding Director of the Homeland Security Center of Excellence for Awareness and Localization of Explosives Related Threats (ALERT), and the Director of the Bernard M. Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems (GordonCenSSIS), a graduated National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center (ERC).

Northeastern University Welcome

Gregory Abowd | Northeastern University
Gregory D. Abowd is the Dean of the College of Engineering at Northeastern University, where he is also a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering with affiliate appointments in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences and the Bouvé College of Health Sciences. His research falls largely in the area of Human-Computer Interaction with an emphasis on applications and technology development for mobile and ubiquitous computing in everyday settings.

Welcoming Remarks – DHS

Laura Parker | Department of Homeland Security
Laura Parker is the Senior Advisor for Sensors in the Science and Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security. Previously, she was the Program Manager for the ALERT Center of Excellence, a DHS-sponsored consortium of universities led by Northeastern University to perform research that address explosive threats. Laura was also the Program Manager for the Next Generation Explosives Trace Detection Program focused on developing advanced explosives trace detectors for use at checkpoints and other DHS operational environments.

Setting the Stage

Carl Crawford | Csuptwo
Carl Crawford is president of Csuptwo, LLC, a technology development and consulting company in the fields of medical imaging and explosive detection for Homeland Security. He has been a technical innovator in the fields of computerized imaging for more than thirty years. His technology has resulted in 90 U.S. Patents.

DHS Perspectives – Panel Discussion

Michael Silevitch | SENTRY
Laura Parker | Department of Homeland Security
Ryan Donaghy | DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
Dr. Ryan Donaghy is the Acting Associate Director for Planning and Innovation at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). As Acting Associate Director, she leads CISA’s efforts to advance infrastructure security and resilience by building innovation networks that generate policy and technology solutions to our nation’s most pressing critical infrastructure challenges. Dr. Donaghy has extensive experience in research and development, decision science, risk management, and cyber and physical security policy. Dr. Donaghy joined CISA in 2016 and has served in multiple leadership roles.

Case Studies & School Security

Gunman at Memphis School Thwarted by Security Measures & SCN’s Command Center 

Stephanie Viegas | Secure Community Network
Stephanie Viegas joined the Secure Community Network (SCN) as Deputy National Security Advisor in March 2022. In this role, Stephanie provides consultations; building and organizational assessments; training and exercise facilitation; and threat mitigation guidance to Jewish organizations nationwide. Stephanie works with schools, daycare centers, synagogues, camps, campus organizations, assisted living facilities, and other centers of Jewish life.

A First-Hand Account: Understanding the Impact of a School Shooting

Penelope (Penny) Eucker | STEM School Highlands Ranch
Dr. Eucker served as the CEO of the non-profit charter school network, KOSON Schools, (formerly named STEM School Highlands Ranch) for over a decade and has over 20 years of experience as an educator and advocate for STEM education. Dr. Eucker’s educational background includes a Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Innovation and Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction, both from the University of Colorado, School of Education.

Methods to Protect Soft Targets

Marty Foldes | Proventus
Martin is a retired Navy SEAL who served more than seven deployments across the globe in the SOCOM (U.S. Special Operations Command) and JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) communities, spanning 20 years from 1997 to 2018.

Michael Stern | Proventus
Michael Stern is the CEO of Proventus, a Jonesboro based security and technology company. Prior to Proventus, he spent over 22 years building and leading successful software sales organizations supporting the Department of Defense.

Workforce Development

Engineering PLUS Alliance Corporate Affiliates Program

Michael Silevitch | SENTRY

Command Centers

Insights learned During the Development of a Domain Awareness Platform for Protecting Schools 

Lisa Dolev | CATS2 Foundation
Dr. Lisa Dolev is a technology entrepreneur, inventor and thought leader. She has over 35 years’ experience in security, defense and medical technology leadership. She is the founder CATS2, a nonprofit entity dedicated to the advancement of K-12 school safety, and is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Qylur Intelligent Systems, an intelligent machines technology company specializing the 4th wave of evolving cognitive AI based networks of autonomous intelligent machines, based in Silicon Valley.

Haley Braff | CATS2 Foundation
Ms. Braff serves as the Community Outreach Specialist for the Center for Applied Technologies for School Security (CATS2) Foundation. She leads a wide range of collaborative engagements in order to support the foundations mission of providing K-12 schools with solutions to mitigate and minimize mass violence in schools through efficient and appropriate technologies.

What Makes it So Difficult to Deploy Command and Control Systems? 

Victor Todorov | U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Chief Victor Todorov joined CBP in 2007. Since 2020, he has worked on Command Center development and Remote Operations for Radiation Portal Monitors and is currently serving as an Acting Watch Commander at the LA/LB Seaport.

Many Screens, One human – What Could Go Wrong and What Might Help?

Jeremy Wolfe | Harvard Medical School
Jeremy Wolfe is Professor of Ophthalmology and Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School. He is Director of the Visual Attention Lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Wolfe received an AB in Psychology in 1977 from Princeton and his PhD in Psychology in 1981 from MIT. His research focuses on visual search and visual attention with a particular interest in socially important search tasks in areas such as medical image perception (e.g. cancer screening), security (e.g. baggage screening), and intelligence.

Command Center Functionality for Soft Targets

David Castañón | Boston University
Professor David Castañón received his Ph.D. degree in Applied Mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976. At Boston University, he served as Department Chair, and as co-director of the Center for Information and Systems Engineering. He served as a Thrust Leader in the Department of Homeland Security’s Emeritus Center of Excellence, ALERT and serves as a Thrust Leader for Soft-target Engineering to Neutralize the Threat Reality (SENTRY).

Virtual Sentry Connectivity to the Events at Robb Elementary School, Uvalde, Texas

Carl Crawford | Csuptwo

Miscellaneous Topics

SENTRY – The Basic Ordering Agreement 

Michael Silevitch | SENTRY

Active Shooter Tracking and Evacuation Routing for Survival (ASTERS) – Update

Subhadeep Chakraborty | University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Subhadeep Chakraborty is an Associate Professor for the Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering Department at University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Case Studies & School Security

TSA Keynote Speaker 

Jim Bamberger Jim Bamberger | Transportation Security Administration
Captain Jim Bamberger is currently the Public Area Security Infrastructure Protection (PASIP) Branch Manager for TSA. Additionally, Captain Bamberger is the Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) Capability Manager for TSA. As the PASIP Branch Manager, Captain Bamberger provides leadership for program managers and technical experts for surface security technology and airport infrastructure protection programs. He collaborates with TSA offices, DHS, and other federal, state, and local law enforcement, security and intelligence organizations, and transportation agencies to evaluate advanced technologies and facilitate industry awareness to help address transportation security vulnerabilities.

Understanding Crowds and the Road to Scalable Intelligent Security 

David Clark | Createc
David is the Operations Director for Createc leading Createc’s internal processes, while continuing to manage key projects and lead the company’s Defence vertical. Before joining Createc David has been involved projects to transfer gamma-ray astronomy imaging technology to the nuclear security industry working in industry/academic collaborations resulting in over 40 publications receiving over ~1600 citations. David has also been involved in developing many new technologies for Createc including a motion tracking technology for the MoD SAPIENT program which has resulted in starting a new spinout company and sees David sit on the MoD’s SAPIENT Interface Management Panel.

SENTRY Projects

Real Time Management of Threat Detection & Mitigation

David Castañón | Boston University

Advanced Sensing Technologies for Threat Detection and Mitigation

Carey Rappaport | Northeastern University
Carey M. Rappaport received five degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: the SB in Mathematics, the SB, SM, and EE in Electrical Engineering in June 1982, and the PhD in Electrical Engineering in June 1987.

Risk Assessment, Prediction and Deterrence of Soft target threats

Jun Zhuang | University at Buffalo
Dr. Jun Zhuang is the Morton C. Frank Professor and serves as the Director of Graduate Studies and the Director of the Decision, Risk & Data Laboratory in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) at the University at Buffalo (UB), which is part of the State University of New York (SUNY).

Layered Security Design for Schools: Building Types and Contexts

Peter Wiederspahn | Northeastern University
Peter Wiederspahn is an associate professor at Northeastern University, Boston, MA, and principal of Wiederspahn Architecture, LLC. His research and pedagogy are focused on architectural design, production, performance, and systems.

Virtual Sentry Framework Testbed

Scott Howard | University of Notre Dame
Dr. Scott Howard is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. His research focuses on improving the speed and sensitivity of molecular imaging technology. The group’s work includes developing new hardware and open-source software tools for real-time chemical imaging for biomedical and defense applications to produce low-noise, super-resolution images in complex and experimentally challenging environments.

Sentry Development Framework for Modeling and Simulation Capabilities

John Taibi | Cambridge Consultants
John Taibi has over 18 years of experience helping leading corporations and government entities to develop breakthrough products and services in a range of markets, from enterprise software solutions to aerospace acquisitions. At Cambridge Consultants, he partners with government agencies, FFRDCs, and government contractors to launch innovative digital transformation and automation initiatives for the US Government, which leverage Cambridge Consultants’ global capabilities in AI, advanced sensing, robotics, and wireless communications.

Emerging Technologies and Sensors

Evolv’s Experiences with Protecting Schools

Mike Ellenbogen | Evolv Technology
For more than 25 years, Mike has led efforts to transform the physical security industry by developing new, advanced weapons and explosive detection technology. In August 2013, Mike cofounded and led Evolv Technology, a company focused on reinventing physical security to help protect people and facilities from mass casualty events.

Extended Range Concealed Object Detection with AI-based Millimeter Radar

Fred Mohamadi | TiaLinx
Fred is a distinguished C-level executive with an extensive 40-year track record of expertise spanning wireless technology, semiconductors, and system product development. With a handson approach, he excels in every facet from initial planning to final qualification. Notably, Fred has dedicated two decades of his career to the specialized field of Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) product development.

Standoff Detection of Threats

Vito Levi D’Ancona | Scientific Venture Partners
Vito co-funded Scientific Venture Partners and multiple deep-tech companies in the security, communications and healthcare sectors. Currently serves as cofounder of Mantacus, which focuses on long-range concealed threat detection. Vito holds an MBA from London Business School and holds a laura in mechanical engineering from the University of Florence.

Using Speech to Detect Mental Health Symptoms: Benefits and Risks

Daniel Low | Harvard University
Daniel Low is a final-year PhD Candidate in the Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology program at Harvard University. He works on detecting mental health symptoms from speech and text data using natural language processing, speech processing, and machine learning at the Senseable Intelligence Group (McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT & Harvard Medical School) and at the Nock Lab (Department of Psychology, Harvard University).

On-Person Screening using Video-Rate Millimeter-Wave Imaging

Michael Lanzaro | Liberty Defense
Michael Lanzaro has more than 25 years of management experience in leading large high-tech organizations with product development, research and development, marketing, and profit and loss responsibilities. He brings over 20 years of experience in the Security and Detection Industry and currently serves as the President and CTO at Liberty Defense Technologies, following the merger of the company with DrawDown Detection Inc. Liberty Defense is a provider of security solutions for concealed weapons and explosives detection in high volume foot traffic areas.

Securing Soft Targets – Challenges and Opportunities in Development and Integration of Real-Time AI Algorithms for Video Data

William Monroe | Analytical AI
William develops and manages Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning solutions at Analytical AI and has been an employee since October of 2020. William is highly experienced at integrating computer algorithms with a user-centric focus. His PhD is in Explainability of Deep Learning. He was formerly the managing data and computational scientist at Alabama’s fastest supercomputer.

Miscellaneous Topics

Unintended Consequences, Civil Liberties, Privacy Concerns Related to Protecting Soft Targets

Jay Stanley | American Civil Liberties Union
Jay Stanley started working on privacy and technology issues at the ACLU five weeks before 9/11. His role at the ACLU is to help the organization think through, monitor, and explain the impact of new technologies on our privacy, free speech and other civil liberties.

Effectiveness of on-field security at sporting events

Mark G. Frank | University at Buffalo
Mark G. Frank received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Cornell University, followed by a National Research Service Award postdoc in the Psychiatry Department at the University of California at San Francisco Medical School. From there he joined the School of Psychology at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, where he worked for 4 years until he joined the Communication Department at Rutgers University.

SafetyFox – A Decision Support Application for Rapid Egress for Home Fires and Other Situations

Tina Gleason | Golda Meir School
Tina Gleason is STEM teacher and coordinator at Milwaukee Public Schools. She is also the lead for Project Lead The Way (PLTW), which is an innovative project-based learning program that incorporates science, technology, engineering, and math. She mentored the students who developed the SafetyFox application that assists children exit their houses in case of a fire.

Clare Reddin | Golda Meir School
Clare Reddin is an eighth-grade student at Golda Meir School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She, along with two classmates, developed an application named SafetyFox that assists children exit their houses in case of a fire. The application runs on cellphones and tablets. Clare is head of programming for the initiative. She and her classmates won first prize at the Badger State Science and Engineering Fair in 2023. Additional information about her work can be found at www.safetyfoxxx.com.

Maya Sierra | Golda Meir School
Maya Sierra is a ninth-grade student at Golda Meir School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She, along with two classmates, developed an application named SafetyFox that assists children exit their houses in case of a fire. The application runs on cellphones and tablets. Maya is head of data analysis and the outreach manager. She and her classmates won first prize at the Badger State Science and Engineering Fair in 2023. Additional information about her work can be found at www.safetyfoxxx.com.

Matilda Van Hecke | Golda Meir School
Matilda Van Hecke is an eighth-grade student at Golda Meir School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She, along with two classmates, developed an application named SafetyFox that assists children exit their houses in case of a fire. The application runs on cellphones and tablets. Matilda is the lead of creative design and is the prototype engineer. She and her classmates won first prize at the Badger State Science and Engineering Fair in 2023. Additional information about her work can be found at www.safetyfoxxx.com.

Next Steps

Summary and Next steps

Harry E. Martz | Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Harry Martz is the Director for Non-destructive Characterization Institute and a distinguished member of the technical staff at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He is also Principal Investigator (PI) on Department of Homeland Security, Science and Technology, Homemade Explosives Identification, Detection and Mitigation (HEIDM) program. Harry joined the Laboratory to develop the area of X-ray imaging and proton energy loss computed tomography for the nondestructive inspection of materials, components, and assemblies.