Director’s Message, April 2026
Dear SENTRY Community,
I want to provide you with some examples of the activities that SENTRY collaborators are instituting and continuing to advance our vision of safe, secure public spaces through the creation of functional and adaptable solutions to detect and mitigate targeted violence.
Prof. Jun Zhuang of the University of Buffalo, is the lead for the SENTRY Threat Risk Assessment, Prediction and Deterrence research and his team’s work is described below in this newsletter. This year, Prof. Zhuang worked closely with a community faith-based organization to conduct a structured safety assessment and provide actionable recommendations to enhance preparedness and risk mitigation under resource constraints. This effort emphasized practical, layered approaches to safety, including improvements in access control, situational awareness, and emergency preparedness, while fostering dialogue between researchers and community stakeholders.
This year, we are very happy to welcome Axis Communications as a SENTRY Industry Partner. Axis has generously donated video camera systems and accessories to be used by SENTRY researchers in support of research and proof of concept efforts. SENTRY researchers Prof. Carey Rappaport and Prof. Richard Radke are among the first wave of SENTRY researchers to benefit from this generous donation. Prof. Rappaport’s research focuses on standoff weapon detection and Prof. Radke’s work is in video anomaly detection across multiple real-world dimensions. This type of contribution from an industry leader is invaluable to SENTRY as it allows for testing and validation of research concepts that can result in real-world transition to our government stakeholders and agencies.
SENTRY continues to have impact on bolstering the future homeland security workforce through SENTRY graduate student Ervin Moore of Florida International University securing a 2026 summer internship through the DHS Professional Opportunities for Student Workforce to Experience Research (HS POWER). Read about Ervin’s achievement in the article below.
In conclusion, such engagements highlight SENTRY’s commitment to translating research into real-world impact and seeking to proactively address evolving security challenges from multiple directions.
