A Summer Learning Endeavor: SENTRY Hosts Research Experiences
This summer, SENTRY researchers engaged in two types of collaborative summer offerings: Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Summer Research Team (SRT) Program for Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). Through hosting these research opportunities, SENTRY was able to involve a diverse set of students and faculty in our ongoing research efforts, sharing knowledge and embracing new perspectives.
SENTRY REU opportunities involve undergraduate students in ongoing center research projects that provide them with direct exposure to concepts and research areas that relate to the SENTRY goals of protecting soft targets and crowded places. Two examples of such REU engagement were conducted at the labs of Professor Samuel Hernandez of University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez (UPRM) and Professor Scott Howard of University of Notre Dame.
Professor Hernandez led efforts to engage undergraduate students at the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez (UPRM), as he has done each summer since the initiation of the center. This summer, he hosted three undergraduate students from UPRM, two from the Ponce Campus of the InterAmerican University, and one high school student who received admittance to the UPRM Industrial Biotechnology Program for the fall of 2023.
These REU students got directly involved in Professor Hernandez’s SENTRY research, allowing them to learn and explore the relationship between the center and end-users. At the conclusion of the program, participants were left with an understanding of how SENTRY’s research themes could relate to their future research, academic pursuits, and careers.
Similarly, Professor Howard hosted one REU student, University of Notre Dame undergraduate Patrick Schwartz, who worked alongside fellow Notre Dame student Sarah Kopfer on a project developing remote sensing technology for drone deployment. The project was jointly funded by SENTRY and NASA, with Howards’ students utilizing both components of SENTRY’s Virtual Sentry Framework Testbed platforms and NASA’s payload and design specs to build a first-person view drone with the potential to be used in response to soft target attacks.
Their efforts were leveraged for participation in the NASA FLOATING DRAGON (Formulate, Lift, Observe, And Testing; Data Recovery and Guided On-board Node) challenge, where Schwartz and Kopfer launched their system, which floated at an altitude of 120,000 ft to its landing spot near the Pacific Ocean.
The DHS SRT program provides research opportunities to increase and enhance the scientific leadership at MSIs in areas that support DHS’s mission and goals. The research teams consist of visiting faculty and students selected to work closely with DHS COE faculty and researchers. Each SRT participant receives a stipend for the 10-week program, which combines significant data analytics training and real-world problem-solving.
In this year’s program spanning June to August 2023, SENTRY researchers, Professor Milad Siami of Northeastern University and Professor Jimmie Oxley of the University of Rhode Island, mentored two selected research teams.
Professor Siami and his team of Northeastern research students virtually hosted Professor Mohammad Habibi of Tennessee State University (TSU) and TSU graduate student, Zambia Shores. The TSU team met with Northeastern researchers weekly to learn about SENTRY’s work, particularly the research of Professor Siami’s group, Real-Time Management of Adaptive Surveillance and Mitigation.
The TSU team explored crowd modeling practices and sensing modalities that could be used in an active shooter scenario or other related areas. Their efforts culminated in an in-person visit by Professor Habibi to Northeastern during which the TSU team presented the results of their work and discussed the required follow-on-funding proposal to DHS.
Separately, Professor Oxley virtually mentored Professor Igor Filikhin of North Carolina Central University (NCCU), along with NCCU graduate students Tyrique Alston and Andrea Joseph during the summer months. The NCCU team focused on research to design nanostructures for TATP (triacetone triperoxide) detection with the goal of creating software to discern detection signal patterns from noise.
The collaborative learning fostered by SENTRY’s engagement in the DHS SRT program will extend beyond the summer, as both Professor Habibi and Professor Filikhin plan to integrate learnings and discoveries from the program into their teaching, enhancing the educational experience for the student body at their home institutions. Additionally, both intend to write research proposals seeking follow-on-funding to allow their work with SENTRY to continue.
SENTRY’s involvement in these 2023 summer programs demonstrates the power of collaboration to generate impactful research. We look forward to maintaining the connection with our REU and DHS SRT participants.
Pictured: Professor Habibi (4th from right) joins Professor Siami (center) and his team of Northeastern graduate student researchers during his in-person visit.
