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Director's Message

Dear SENTRY Community,

On August 22, Northeastern University received formal written notice that our appeal to recover our core funding had been denied. We have since submitted our final report and are moving forward as a center with determination and optimism.

Michael B. Silevitch

On September 10, staff members supporting the House Homeland Security Committee's Task Force on Enhancing Security for Special Events reached out to SENTRY regarding our experience with the complexities of protecting participants at the World Cup and other large-scale events in the U.S. We provided the task force with initial insights based on the center's findings, which were gathered from site visits to stadiums and transportation venues, focus groups with stadium security stakeholders, and center research.

Our mission-critical research, focused on protecting soft targets and crowded places, will continue. Click here to explore the significant impact of our center's work over the past four years. We look forward to sharing monthly updates with you as we adapt and grow through this funding transition.

Research Project Spotlight

Dynamic Digital Twins For Secure And Smart Civic Space

Key Accomplishments:

Dynamic Digital Twins Delivered

A digital twin of the New Jersey Hoboken Terminal is now capable of monitoring crowd movements in real time across multiple cameras, providing valuable data to analyze crowd behavior. Additionally, it can simulate various threats, including flooding events and malicious attacks, which significantly broadens the range of scenarios that can be evaluated within a digital twin environment. This enables the real-time monitoring and simulation of crowd management during various scenarios, including the prediction of hot spots based on crowd size and train schedules. This functionality has led New Jersey Transit to request the development of a digital twin for Newark Penn Station, supporting its renovation ahead of the 2026 World Cup.

Real-time 3D Mapping using AI and a Robot Dog

A large language model has been integrated into a robot dog platform to facilitate multi-modal interaction between the human operator, the digital twin, and robotic systems. The system is designed to accelerate digital twin development and includes a security feature localization system that can be used to rapidly characterize the spatial structure of crowded places, as well as update the dynamic contents (such as temporary objects) in the digital twin environment.

PROBLEM:

This project addresses the lack of effective digital twin technology for identifying and mitigating security risks at soft targets and crowded places. The challenges to making digital twins, which are virtual representations of physical assets, environments or systems that can be used to simulate their behavior to better understand how they work, include data integration issues, limited real-time monitoring, lack of human digital twin teaming, and high costs.

SOLUTION:

The primary objective is to design, experiment with, and evaluate scalable and effective methods for creating dynamic digital twins of soft targets and crowded places that enhance security by monitoring environments in real-time, predicting threats, and integrating crowd behavior models to mitigate vulnerabilities.

SENTRY RESEARCH PROJECT PORTFOLIO

Upcoming Events

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) School Safety Virtual Training: The virtual training will be held on Thursday, October 16, from 3:00 to 4:00 PM EDT, focusing on enhancing behavioral threat assessment and management practices in K-12 schools.

Behavioral threat assessment is a crucial component of school safety, helping to identify and mitigate concerning behaviors before they escalate into crises. This session will explore how K-12 leaders can develop and strengthen behavioral threat assessment processes that promote early intervention and prevent school violence, particularly when integrated into a comprehensive, multi-tiered system of supports. A panel of experts will share strategies for forming an effective behavioral threat assessment team, defining roles, and fostering collaboration among school staff, mental health professionals, and law enforcement partners.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER