SENTRY Transition Successes

SENTRY Supports DHS Research Priorities

SENTRY research aligns with the DHS’s primary priorities: securing and managing air, land, and maritime borders, and expediting lawful trade and travel. It also supports secondary research priorities of threat characterization, detection, and mitigation, as well as emergency response and critical infrastructure for public safety.

SENTRY’s Digital Dog Nose: Unparalleled Sensitivity in Vapor Detection

Ready For Evaluation and Piloting

A novel vapor sensor that uses an array of thermodynamic sensors that can be flown to the plume source, i.e., drone-mounted, carried, or discreetly hidden throughout a venue. The Digital Dog Nose (DDN) is designed to be more efficient at finding and communicating threats than a canine handler.

SENTRY has granted and issued utility patent covering foundational technology at the heart of the Digital Dog Nose research. This patent has been exclusively licensed to Trace Sensing Technologies for inclusion as part of its TRACE-E and Digital Dog Nose product lines. Trace Sensing, a SENTRY transitioned startup, has been granted and issued four additional patents on vapor sensing technology.

Virtual SENTRY Framework Infrastructure (VSFI) Integrated Tracking, Sensing, and Communications System

Novel System Created, Security Capabilities Enhanced

SENTRY developed a system for real-time semi-autonomous incident management. The system includes extremely low-cost, disposable, personnel location and communications devices with an off-grid secure data communications protocol compatible with the DoD and DHS-sponsored Team Awareness Kit (TAK) platform. This enables decision-makers to know the real-time location of units across jurisdictions and to integrate AI systems for coordinating and monitoring the decision-makers’ orders. This system has been developed with support from SENTRY’s Industry and Practitioner Advisory Boards and the industry working groups at NCS4 National Professional Sports and Entertainment Safety and Security Forum.

Knowledge Transfer

1,416

resources downloaded from the web
286

SENTRY newsletter recipients
276

publications, presentations, and news articles
587

students, education mentors, and first responder trainees
15

government and industry specific requests for assistance

Groundbreaking SENTRY Tools, Patents, and Inventions: Disclosed, Awarded, and In Use

Digital Twins Help New Jersey Transit with Crowd Management and Evacuation Strategies

SENTRY created digital twins of Hoboken and Secaucus Stations and developed tools for transit security to conduct “what if” tabletop exercises and risk analysis. These digital twins can support real-time monitoring of crowds and predict hotspots based on the current crowd situation and future train arrival schedules. They also support the simulation of crowd management during compound hazard scenarios such as flooding and opportunistic attacks.

Optimizing Routing in Active Shooter Scenarios, 50% Improvement

The invention disclosure “Real-time optimization of escape routes of victims in an active shooter scenario for maximizing safety” describes algorithms for optimized routing in active shooter scenarios, which have been shown to result in more than a 50% improvement in casualties when tested in discrete-event simulations.

Chemical Threat Detection Dataset: Over 150 Unique Fingerprints

SENTRY has led to the creation of a threat identification and differentiation dataset, including over 150 fingerprints for threat compounds. The current threat database covers threat compounds (explosives, narcotics, gun oils, etc.), known precursors (acetone, hydrogen peroxide, ammonia, etc.), and common interferents (deodorant, perfume, etc.). This dataset is currently being utilized by Trace Sensing Technologies for the development of its Digital Dog Nose product line, which promises to offer continuous, real-time detection of threats in various applications.

Computer Vision Algorithms for Action Recognition: Publicly Distributed

SENTRY’s nine computer vision algorithms for action recognition, segmentation, and video temporal super-resolution are publicly available and have been leveraged to improve action recognition technologies.

Tools to Understand Strategic Attackers to Reduce the Risk of Terrorism and Crime

Protecting Soft Targets (ProSoT) has delivered usable game-theoretic defensive resource allocation models through Graphical User Interface tools shaped by feedback from DHS stakeholders and academic research papers which have been downloaded 480 times to date. Several datasets and analysis of understanding strategic attackers’ behaviors and decision-making processes have been delivered to the U.S. public, as well as businesses, organizations, and institutions that want to reduce the risk of terrorism and crime to the individuals that patronize them.

AI-Driven Network Risk Modeling and Simulation for Rail Transit: Tool Developed, Ready for Use

SENTRY has developed a network risk modeling and simulation capability that can be used to assess network threat risk and deterrence in soft transportation infrastructure, such as rail systems, and inform resource allocation decisions. Applied to the Boston urban rail network as a proof-of-concept, the software includes three connected modules: (1) machine learning with graphs – for target attractiveness prediction, (2) network failure simulation – to simulate cascading network failure sequences for what-if scenario analysis, and (3) network resource optimization – for risk-informed network resource allocation.

Technology Transfer

65

Products Developed
2

Invention Disclosures
2

Spinoff Companies

Amplifying the Impact of Investments: Two SENTRY Spin-off Companies

Trace Sensing Technologies

Trace Sensing Technologies (TS) Founded by Drs. Peter Ricci and Otto Gregory, Trace Sensing is a startup sensor company focused on commercializing its thermodynamic vapor sensor technology for a variety of applications, including healthcare, security, and defense. A direct byproduct of research funded by SENTRY and other DHS Centers of Excellence, TS has developed a sensor platform that is currently being utilized for the detection of breath biomarkers related to pathogens and diseases that affect hundreds of millions of people in the US alone. TS has several ongoing preclinical studies and continues to explore opportunities for defense and security applications through Homeland Security stakeholders.

SENTRY's Trace Sensing Technologies

ASTERS Inc

ASTERS Inc (a Delaware C-corporation) is an early-stage startup that spun out of the work done for SENTRY. The company aims to build Agentic-AI based Digital Twin simulations for Homeland Security applications. With the rapid developments happening in the spatial intelligence and Agentic AI space, the time is ripe to build on top of these solutions focused on solving some the Homeland Security challenges. To this end, the company aims to focus on both AI Research and software development. ASTERS Inc has been accepted into the University of Chicago Transform AI accelerator (cohort 4), which comes with $325K compute credits and $25K cash investment along with mentorship from leading academics, industry, and corporate partners.

SENTRY's ASTERS Inc

Partnerships

14

Partner Institutions
10

Connected States and Territories
70

STCP Stakeholders
11

Mission-Relevant Industry Partners

Request Made, Knowledge Gathered

2026 World Cup Crowd Management Security Tools Requested

The World Cup is being held in North America in 2026, with eight games and the final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Based on SENTRY crowd simulation research, SENTRY researchers have been asked by MetLife Stadium to help design new crowd management practices for the World Cup and by NJ Transit to help understand load and security needs in their system and develop crowd management models for the planned Secaucus-Meadowlands Transitway which is aimed at improving the capacity and service frequency of public transport between Secaucus Station and MetLife Stadium in time for the World Cup.

Active Shooter Security and Tactical Planning for Nationwide Public Safety Agencies

The line-of-sight (LOS) simulation capabilities developed by the Rutgers team through the SENTRY project provide transferrable tools for 3D modeling and visualization platforms like SkyeBrowse, Pix4D, and DroneDeploy to assess vulnerabilities of public facilities and event configurations to active shooters, whether from mobile or static positions, as well as explosive and drone attacks. These LOS simulation tools can be used in reverse to support strategic planning for security coverage and patrol routes. Combined with rapid 3D modeling, real-time crowd simulation, and digital twin technologies developed through SENTRY, these advancements will significantly enhance security planning and response strategies for potential soft-target terrorist attacks, including mass shootings and assassination attempts during public events such as marathons, festivals, celebrations, and political campaigns.

Guidance and Knowledge Delivered to Make Schools Safe

Guidance for School Decision Makers to Support Safety and Security through Building Design

There is an abundance of recommendations and advice on school security, but the efficacy and quality of evidence are not always clear and can be diffuse. SENTRY has created evidence-based guidance to help decision-makers design the built environment in support of school security. The team is currently developing similar guidance for surface transportation venues.

Building Information Modeling of School Building Types for Simulations

SENTRY developed full BIM models of four common types of school building layouts to be used by other research teams for security simulation work. These are especially important in the absence of digital twins of specific facilities, which can raise concerns about the disclosure of sensitive information. These were based on an analysis of 16 school buildings in a wide range of neighborhoods across the United States and designed to be equivalent in program and community size to enable controlled studies.

Digital and Event Outreach

43

events
2,245

event attendees
21,866

website views
32,434

social media impressions
846

social media posts

SENTRY Reconnect Training Modules - Available Online, 120+ Downloads

In line with SENTRY’s workforce and professional development program, the annual Reconnect Workshops gather faculty from Community Colleges and other institutions to explore research themes and concepts related to the SENTRY mission. During the workshop, participants create homeland security materials and develop instructional modules for implementation in classrooms nationwide. The modules cover five to eight days of instruction and utilize concepts shared by SENTRY researchers and other DHS Centers of Excellence, including CCICADA. Some modules come with a professional development component.

Reconnect Educational Modules

Public-Private Partnerships Established

Advanced Development for Security Applications Workshops

The Advanced Development for Security Applications (ADSA) workshop series addresses the problems which need to be solved to protect soft targets and crowded spaces. Attendees include academia, security vendors and professionals, government agencies, and federally funded research and development centers. By bringing these individuals together for a focused dialog on security requirements and needs, ADSA has successfully provided bidirectional transfer of knowledge, information, and insights resulting in the creation of public-private partnerships delivering actionable solutions. ADSA is acknowledged by participants as a critical collaborative engine working to solve the challenge of better protecting soft targets.