ALERT | Awareness and Localization of Explosive-Related Threats

ALERT Student Researcher, Jon Canino, wins the 8th Annual National Security Innovation Competition

For the second time, ALERT students have taken home the $10,000 First Prize at the National Security Innovation Competition. Chosen out of over 100 submissions, Jon Canino’s “Safe Training Aids for Bomb Sniffing Dogs” rose to the top. Jon is a graduate student at the University of Rhode Island and works with Dr. Jimmie Oxley and Dr. Jim Smith on ALERT’s Explosive Polymer Interactions (R1-C2) Project.

Awarding the winner of this year’s competition was especially challenging with the organizers noting this year had shown”…one of the broadest spectrum of technological innovations that have ever been presented during the 2014 NSIC; all with great application in the homeland security and defense sectors.”

The National Security Innovation Competition began as a competition for Colorado-based universities, it is now an internationally recognized national security STEM education program.

Its current goal is to “EDUCATE students of the need and desire for a more robust Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) workforce, to MOTIVATE students to pursue STEM related Degree programs and/or career paths, and to INCENTIVIZE students, through scholarship dollars and other opportunities, to follow this pathway to restore the United States and its allies STEM expertise, innovation and technological superiority”.