ADSA26: Uniting Against Attacks on Soft Targets
Last winter, SENTRY hosted the 26th installment of the Advanced Development for Security Applications (ADSA) workshop series. Over 100 attendees gathered both virtually and in person from November 30 to December 1 to engage with this year’s theme: Reducing the Lethality of Attacks on Soft Targets.
This year’s workshop welcomed leaders in academia, industry, public service, and government. Since its inception in 2009, the ADSA workshops have fostered connections between universities, national research labs, and the private sector, all uniting under the shared goal of discussing emerging technologies and exploring research opportunities to ensure a safer homeland. By emphasizing collaboration between experts across fields and forging lasting connections, ADSA26 continues a legacy of exchanging new perspectives and sparking innovation.
SENTRY Director Michael Silevitch shares, “This year, we welcomed industry leaders to engage with our university partners and researchers to tackle the complexities of combatting attacks on soft targets, strengthening existing alliances, and forging new connections. As Director of SENTRY, it is a privilege to see another successful ADSA workshop run its course. It is through the melding of complementary skills and the exchange of knowledge that breakthroughs will emerge.”
The ADSA26 workshop focused on topics intrinsic to national security. Attendees took part in discussions surrounding the detection of people with malicious intent and their weapons, hardening venues, rapid response to events, virtual sentries (command and control centers), and recent technologies.
The ADSA workshops continue to advance SENTRY’s mission of implementing an engineered systems strategy that can adapt to protect the diversity of our homeland and ensure the safety of soft targets and crowded places. In keeping with this mission, the ADSA26 workshop included presentations from experts on topics ranging from the importance of school safety and addressing targeted violence to new technological developments to help detect threats to soft targets in the United States. All ADSA26 presentations are available to view and download, along with information from previous ADSA workshops.
The next installation of the workshop series, ADSA27, will take place in 2023 and will focus on topics related to furthering our Virtual Sentry Framework. Further details are forthcoming.
