ALERT | Awareness and Localization of Explosive-Related Threats

ALERT invites you to the COE Summit on May 30-31, 2018! April 20, 2018

The Department of Homeland Security Centers of Excellence Summit 2018 will take place on May 30-31, 2018 at George Mason University in Arlington Virginia. ALERT would like to invite industry partners, researchers, homeland security operators, and other center community members to gather to collaborate on this year’s theme:

University Research & Development to Protect the Homeland

The summit will feature experts on relevant subject matter to discuss homeland security challenges, and facilitate collaboration between COE researchers and DHS leadership, as well as component end-users and industry participants. This year’s summit strives to showcase innovative research and development tools and other solutions to homeland security challenges, and to provide avenues to accelerate transition from research and development to operational use for those who protect the homeland.

The program includes panels with experts, a student poster and innovation showcase, demonstrations of tools and technology, opportunities for collaboration, and an address by William N. Bryan, Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Under Secretary for Science and Technology in the Department of Homeland Security.

To register and for more information on the Centers of Excellence Summit 2018, visit the summit’s website – www.cina.gmu.edu/coe-summit-2018

The COE Summit is sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security Centers of Excellence (COEs). The COE network is a consortium of hundreds of universities that conduct research and education to address homeland security challenges. ALERT is one of nine current Centers of Excellence sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security Office of University Programs.

Innovation Business Partners: ALERT’s Newest Industrial Member March 2, 2018

March 29, 2018

ALERT is pleased to welcome Innovation Business Partners, Inc. (IBP) as its newest industrial member. IBP is a small business based in New Jersey that assists organizations and individuals in creating and spreading new knowledge to maximize their value and competitive advantage. They do this through the offering of many services, including innovation training courses, analysis and modeling of innovation networks, and models that create and promote an organizational culture of innovation. By analyzing the innovation networks of organizations and their competition, IBP creates valuable connections so that its clients can share knowledge and become more competitive in their field.

IBP’s clientele spans government and private sectors over a wide variety of topics. IBP is currently working on a pilot study of ALERT’s innovation network baseline and innovation potential. ALERT is looking forward to seeing the output and working further to enhance the ALERT network.

ALERT industrial membership has several advantages. Through various events, ALERT provides members the opportunity to network with other members, faculty from ALERT’s partner institutions, and local, state, and federal representatives. Other advantages of ALERT industrial membership include admission to two members-only events.  First is the Annual Student Pipeline Industry Roundtable Event (ASPIRE), providing industrial members with access to qualified job-seeking students. Second is participation in the ALERT Industrial Advisory Board meeting which involves guest speakers, highlights of successful government-industry-academia collaboration, and networking opportunities. Members also have the opportunity to request targeted research in an area of interest to their organizations; and lastly, ALERT public workshop registration fees are waived. For more advantages of ALERT industrial membership, please see the Benefits of Collaboration, or contact our Industrial and Government Liaison Officer, Ms. Emel Bulat at [email protected] or Ms. Kristy Provinzano at [email protected].

Photo: Gary Markovitz, CEO of Innovation Business Partners, Inc., presenting at the last Industrial Advisory Board meeting in October 2017. 

“ADSA in Three Words” (Video) January 29, 2018

What began as a relatively small workshop (approximately 30 attendees) on the campus of Northeastern University (Boston, MA) in 2009, has evolved into an interactive biannual conference series with over 150 participants regularly. Viewed by participants as a “forum which brings together many different communities with a common goal of solving security challenges,” (ADSA17 participant quote), the ADSA (Advanced Development for Security Applications) Workshop series intends to facilitate collaboration and innovation between these communities.

At the last ADSA workshop (ADSA17 Workshop), ALERT asked several participants to sum up the biannual event in only three words. See what government, industry, and research participants had to say in “ADSA in Three Words.”

For users without YouTube access: ADSA in Three Words

Save the Date: Upcoming ALERT Spring Events! January 29, 2018

January 29, 2018

Throughout the year, ALERT offers events that provide great networking, training, and technology opportunities to you, our center stakeholders. We hope you put the following events on your spring calendar:

ASPIRE 2018 – April 26, 2018

The Annual Student Pipeline Industry Roundtable Event (ASPIRE) will be held on Thursday, April 26, 2018 from 12:00 – 5:00pm at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. The ASPIRE series is hosted by the ALERT (Awareness and Localization of Explosives-Related Threats) and Gordon-CenSSIS (The Bernard M. Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems). ASPIRE provides an optimal setting for dialogue among members of the academic, industrial, and government communities and also provides networking opportunities for ALERT and Gordon-CenSSIS students looking for internships, co-op opportunities, and full-time jobs.

Great for Students, Government & Industry.

Fundamentals of Explosives Course at University of Rhode Island – May 1-3, 2018

ALERT researcher, Dr. Jimmie Oxley of the University of Rhode Island, will be holding a “Fundamentals of Explosives” course for professionals working in the Homeland Security Enterprise from May 1-3, 2018, with the option of taking a “Laboratory Analysis and Safety” or “Field Instrumentation and Testing” course on May 4, 2018.

The “Fundamentals of Explosives” course examines the chemistry of explosives, the physics of detonation waves, and their initiation, and the issues involved in safe handling and characterizing these. Explosive output and coupling to surroundings with specific application to structural response will be discussed. The course will also address terrorist bombings, the gathering, analysis, and interpretation of evidence, improvised explosives, and explosives detection. Lecturers are internationally known experts. More information about the available courses and registration can be found here.

Great for Students & First Responders.

ADSA18 Workshop – May 15-16, 2018

The Eighteenth Advanced Development for Security Applications (ADSA18) Workshop will be held on May 15-16, 2018 at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. The theme of the latest ADSA workshop is “Collection and Use of Metadata for Improving Aviation Security Systems.” In addition to the discussion of metadata, presentation topics will include behavior detection, cybersecurity, and DICOS (Digital Imaging and Communications in Security) standards for airport security.

The ADSA Workshop series has been convened by the DHS Center of Excellence (COE) for Awareness and Localization of Explosives-Related Threats (ALERT) since 2009. Originally named the “Algorithm Development for Security Applications” workshop series, ALERT changed the name of the workshop series following the ADSA10 Workshop in 2014 to reflect how the scope of these workshops have expanded and evolved beyond algorithms. Today, topics addressed in these workshops include energy sources (e.g. X-ray, neutrons), sensors (e.g. photon counting X-ray detectors, trace), concept of operations, hardening, deterrence, simulants, and testing. The ADSA Workshop series is intended to address research opportunities that may enable the development of next-generation systems and to facilitate collaboration and innovation between researchers from academia, national labs, and industry.

To read the proceedings from previous ADSA Workshops, check out ALERT’s collection of final reports.

Great for Researchers, Government & Industry.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Centers of Excellence (COE) Summit 2018 – May 30-31, 2018

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Centers of Excellence (COE) Summit 2018 will convene from May 30-31, 2018 at George Mason University in Arlington, VA. The theme of the summit will be “University Research and Development to Protect the Homeland” and intends to bring together representatives and researchers from the current DHS COEs and their stakeholders. The goals of the summit include providing subject matter experts to discuss current and future homeland security challenges; showcasing innovative R&D tools and solutions to homeland security challenges; facilitating collaboration between DHS COEs and end users; and providing avenues to accelerate the transition of R&D to reality for those who protect the homeland. For more details and to register visit: https://cina.gmu.edu/coe-summit-2018/

Great for Students, Researchers, Government & Industry.

Advanced Development for Security Applications for Customs and Border Protection Workshop (ADSA-CBP-01)

The first Advanced Development for Security Applications for Customs and Border Protection  (ADSA-CBP-01) workshop will be held on June 20-21, 2018 at Northeastern University in Boston, MA.  This workshop stems from the ALERT ADSA Workshop series. The ADSA-CBP-01 workshop is convened by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Center of Excellence (COE) for Awareness and Localization of Explosives-Related Threats (ALERT) at Northeastern University. ALERT is supported by the DHS Science and Technology and Customs and Borders Protection Office of Field Operations through the DHS Office of University Programs.

Great for Researchers, Government & Industry.

Guardian Centers Joins ALERT, Presents at Industrial Advisory Board Meeting November 27, 2017

November 27, 2017

ALERT held its annual Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) Meeting at the Kostas Research Institute in Burlington, MA on October 16^th. The agenda attracted many of ALERT’s industrial members, representatives from ALERT’s DHS Office of University Program (OUP) customers and other DHS components, such as DHS S&T, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).  It was ALERT’S highest attended IAB Meeting to date and many new relationships were established, laying the groundwork for potential future collaboration.

The agenda included welcoming remarks from Tim Connelly, the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, presentations from two guest and one faculty presenters, a student poster session, a testimonial of successful government/faculty/industry collaboration within ALERT, and a tour of the ALERT Video Analytics Laboratory, followed by a networking reception. Presenters included:

• Guest Presenter: Thriving in the Innovation Economy through Collaborations of Government, Universities, and Industry, Gary Markovits, CEO, Innovation Business Partners, Inc.
• Guest Presenter: Guardian Centers Capabilities and Case Studies, Tim Maloney, VP, Business Development, Guardian Centers, LLC.
• Industry-Academic Team Presenter: An ALERT Case Study for Successful Collaboration and Transition, Jeff Schubert, Sr. Staff Scientist, AS&E, and Dr. Brian Tracey, Research Faculty, Tufts University, ECE.
• Research Presenter: Imaging at Speed Using a Multicoded Compressive System, Jose Martinez-Lorenzo, Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Jointly Appointed, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern University.

ALERT had the privilege of introducing the Guardian Centers, LLC as not only a guest presenter, but also our newest ALERT Industrial Member. Guardian Centers is a dynamic and immersive urban terrain campus that replicates realistic natural and man-made disasters. They provide custom services that include complete exercise design and planning, training and certification, and full-service logistics support at its state of the art flagship training campus in Perry, Georgia, or at any client location throughout the world. Guardian Centers demonstrates exceptional performance and results delivering specialized training courses and practical exercises for special skills certification and professional services training.

ALERT’s annual IAB Meeting and other members-only events provide industrial members with the opportunity to network with other members, faculty from ALERT’s partner institutions, and representatives from local, state, and federal government institutions. Other advantages of ALERT industrial membership include admission to the Annual Student Pipeline Industry Roundtable Event (ASPIRE), providing industrial members with access to qualified job-seeking students; the opportunity to request targeted research in an area of interest to their organizations; and waivers of ALERT workshop registration fees. For more advantages of ALERT industrial membership, please see the Benefits of Collaboration, or contact our Industrial and Government Liaison Officer, Ms. Emel Bulat at [email protected].

ADSA17 Presentations Now Available November 10, 2017

We are pleased to announce that the presentations from The Seventeenth Advanced Development for Security Applications Workshop (ADSA17) which was held on October 17-18, 2017 at Northeastern University in Boston, MA are now available for download. The presentations from the ADSA17 Workshop are now available at the following link: https://alert.northeastern.edu/transitioning-technology/adsa/final-reports-and-presentations/adsa17-presentations/

The title of the workshop was, “Systems Engineering of Aviation Security Systems.” View all slides, as well as the reports from past ADSA workshops here.

If you have any questions regarding the topics and technologies discussed at the workshop, please contact ALERT at [email protected].

Upcoming 2017 Industrial Advisory Board Meeting September 27, 2017

ALERT is once again hosting its annual Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) meeting at the Kostas Research Institute in Burlington, MA. The October 16^th event will include many of ALERT’s industrial members, representatives from ALERT’s DHS Office of University Program (OUP) customers and other DHS components, such as DHS S&T, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), as well as a representative from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

The agenda has evolved to include two guest speakers, a student poster session, and networking reception. Additionally, the event will include welcome remarks from Tim Connelly, the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, a faculty speaker, a testimonial of successful government/faculty/industry collaboration within ALERT, and a tour of the ALERT Video Analytics Laboratory. Presenters include:

• Guest Presenter: Thriving in the Innovation Economy through Collaborations of Government, Universities, and Industry, Gary Markovits, CEO, Innovation Business Partners, Inc.
• Guest Presenter: Guardian Centers Capabilities and Case Studies, Tim Maloney, VP, Business Development, Guardian Centers, LLC
• Industry Presenter: An ALERT Case Study for Successful Collaboration and Transition, Jeff Schubert, Sr. Staff Scientist, AS&E
• Research Presenter: Imaging at Speed Using a Multicoded Compressive System, Jose Martinez-Lorenzo, Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Jointly Appointed, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern University

ALERT’s annual IAB Meeting, and other members-only events give industrial members the opportunity to network with other members, faculty from ALERT’s partner institutions, and local, state, and federal representatives. Other advantages of ALERT industrial membership include admission to the Annual Student Pipeline Industry Roundtable Event (ASPIRE), providing industrial members with access to qualified job-seeking students; the opportunity to request targeted research in an area of interest to their organizations; and waivers of ALERT workshop registration fees. For more advantages of ALERT industrial membership, please see the Benefits of Collaboration, or contact our Industrial and Government Liaison Officer, Ms. Emel Bulat at [email protected].

Airlines for America (A4A) Visit ALERT July 28, 2017

On July 19, 2017, ALERT hosted Airlines for America (A4A), a trade association based in Washington, D.C. A4A member airlines and their affiliates transport more than 90% of U.S. passenger and cargo traffic. A4A’s stated purpose is to “foster a business and regulatory environment that ensures safe and secure air transportation and enables U.S. airlines to flourish, stimulating economic growth.” As such, A4A’s support is critical to ALERT’s mission and developing closer ties is of strategic importance to our researchers and our industrial partners.

A4A representatives started the day by being presented with an overview of ALERT’s organization, research, and partnerships with industry by ALERT’s Deputy Director, Prof. Carey Rappaport. This presentation was given at Northeastern University’s Kostas Institute for Homeland Security (KRI) in Burlington, MA and was followed by a tour of ALERT’s Video Analytics Laboratory, which is housed at KRI and is currently being used for ALERT’s Correlating Luggage and Specific Passengers (CLASP) research project.

The group then returned to Northeastern’s main campus in Boston, MA and toured the Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) Laboratory led by Professor Carey Rappaport and the Sensing, Imaging, Control and Actuation (SICA) laboratory lead by Professor Jose Martinez-Lorenzo. Both labs provided demos of ALERT’s On-the-Move technologies and Whole Body Scanning technologies; the latter demo was assisted by ALERT’s current Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) students. The A4A team was very impressed with the research presented and requested a second day-long event to allow representatives from A4A member organizations to see firsthand the results of ALERT’s research efforts.

In building partnerships with A4A and the airlines and affiliates they represent, ALERT hopes to deliver relevant and field-able technologies to the air transportation community.

Five Questions with Srikrishna Karanam (RPI, MS ’14, PhD ’17) July 28, 2017

Former ALERT student researcher, Srikrishna Karanam, reflects on his time with ALERT and how it prepared him for working in the Homeland Security Enterprise.

Srikrishna joined ALERT in 2013 as a graduate student working with Prof. Richard J. Radke at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) on video analytics problems in camera networks. At RPI, he earned his MS in Electrical Engineering and his Ph.D. in Computer and Systems Engineering. Srikrishna is now working as a Research Scientist at Siemens Corporate Research, focusing on computer vision and machine learning.

What professional development opportunities, aside from research experience, benefitted you during your time as an ALERT student?

SK:  During my time as an ALERT student, I attended several major conferences in Computer Vision – CVPR 2015 in Boston, MA, BMVC 2015 in Swansea, UK and ICCV 2015 in Santiago, Chile.  Going to these conferences allowed me to discuss open problems and establish connections with several researchers in my field. Furthermore, I participated in several ALERT events – ASPIRE, ADSA, and ALERT annual meetings – where I got opportunities to present my work to several stakeholders in the security and surveillance industry.

These ALERT events were crucial in that they helped me focus my algorithmic and systems research on operational aspects from an end-user’s perspective – I believe these are critical issues as we transition laboratory research into working prototypes in the real world. 

We understand that you were working under the supervision of former ALERT student, Ziyan Wu (RPI, PhD ‘14) during an internship with Siemens Corporate Research (Princeton, NJ) last year. What were some highlights from that experience?

SK:  I was given a lot of independence in addressing existing problems the group at Siemens was tackling. This gave me an opportunity to explore several algorithmic as well as implementation and engineering components of the project I was assigned to. At the algorithmic level, I developed new algorithms and demonstrated improved performance on internal datasets. In addition, I assisted the group in integrating these algorithms as part of a large system that has been deployed for in-the-field testing.

This assignment provided me with valuable, real-world, hands-on research experience. Ziyan and others in the Vision Technologies and Solutions group were very supportive, kind, and welcoming, and I thoroughly enjoyed working there and developed great friendships along the way. 

During your time at ALERT, you collaborated with ALERT teams from RPI, Northeastern University, and Boston University. Can you tell us a little bit about these collaborations and how they have prepared you to work in industry? Have you continued these collaborations post-graduation?

SK:  I worked with the ALERT teams from RPI, Northeastern University, and Boston University on the VAST “Tag and Track” project (see related video at: https://alert.northeastern.edu/news-article/alert-101-is-back/) for over 3 years.  Each team was responsible for specific parts of the project, with the goal of deploying and testing a working prototype of the system at the Cleveland International Airport, which was successfully achieved in Summer 2015.

The “Tag and Track” project provided me with real-world research, development, and project management experience, helping develop skills that are particularly relevant to industrial research labs. At Siemens Corporate Technology, I have been working on solving vision problems with practical relevance across multiple industrial units, and my experience with ALERT has helped me transition into my current work environment seamlessly.

Because of this project, I developed close collaborations (and friendships) with several researchers from Northeastern (specifically, Mengran Gou (NU, PhD ’17) and Oliver Lehmann (NU, PhD ’15)) in addition to Ziyan Wu and Austin Li (RPI, PhD ’15) from RPI. For instance, since the winter of 2015, Mengran and I have been closely collaborating on a project where our goal is to benchmark the current state-of-the-art in person re-identification for the convenience of the larger research community – as part of this work, we have evaluated several hundreds of different algorithms on numerous public datasets. Ziyan and I have been closely working together on numerous problems for many years – initially at RPI and now at Siemens.

Can you describe your role at Siemens and the research you are conducting now?

SK:  I work as a Research Scientist in the Vision Technologies and Solutions group at Siemens Corporate Technology, where I research topics in Computer Vision and Machine Learning. I am responsible for developing algorithms to address research problems, as well as prototype systems that leverage these algorithms to solve real-world problems. My current research focuses on all aspects of image indexing, search, and retrieval with applications in object recognition and pose estimation.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

SK:  My past research experience at RPI and ALERT has made me realize the importance of, and challenges in, getting lab-optimized research to work effectively in the “wild” real-world. To this end, I hope to contribute towards bridging this “gap,” enabling and building systems that offer Computer Vision, Machine Learning, and Data Analytics technologies as services to solve a wide variety of real-world problems.

ADSA16 Presentations Now Available June 20, 2017

We are pleased to announce that the presentations from The Sixteenth Advanced Development for Security Applications Workshop (ADSA16) which was held on May 2-3, 2017 at Northeastern University in Boston, MA are now available for download.

The title of the workshop was, “Addressing the Requirement for Different Stakeholders in Transportation Security.” View all slides, as well as the reports from past ADSA workshops here.

If you have any questions regarding the topics and technologies discussed at the workshop, please contact ALERT at [email protected].