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Director's Message

Dear SENTRY Community,

As spring semester comes to a close, we are celebrating student accomplishments and highlighting new opportunities for industry, government, and academic leaders to contribute to the continued goal of safe and secure public spaces in the U.S. and beyond.

Michael B. Silevitch

One such opportunity is through an entrepreneurship accelerator known as Elev X! Ignite fostered by NEC, one of the world’s largest enterprise technology companies. More information can be found in the article below. Another is an effort established and led by SENTRY University Partner, the University of Florida: The Strategic Partnerships for Enhancing Airport Resilience (SPEAR) project. SPEAR aims to develop science-based, data-driven tools and frameworks that strengthen the operational resilience of U.S. airports and major infrastructure systems. This summer, SPEAR is partnering with Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to host a hands-on workshop focused on Airport Resilience and Recovery from Disruptions.

We encourage you to consider engaging with these efforts and share them with others who are well-suited to contribute to the larger dialogue around solutions to detect and prevent violence against soft targets.

We look forward to sharing SENTRY-led events planned for late summer and fall in our next newsletter!

Research Project Spotlight

Real-Time Crowd and Attacker Forecasting

for Risk Assessment and Threat Mitigation

Key Accomplishments:

Advanced Crowd Simulation Software

Developed high performance, cross-platform crowd simulation software capable of handling over 60,000 individuals in real time, offering unprecedented speeds and scalability that surpass current industry standards for both normal and evacuation scenarios. This software can be customized to be used for various soft targets and crowded places.

Used Real World Data to Deliver an Accurate Tool

Used video analytics to process over 80GB of real-world footage collected from 14 locations within the stadium during a college football event. The team detailed pedestrian trajectories to calibrate the crowd simulation model ensuring a realistic baseline for behavior modeling.

Threat Analysis and Mitigation Strategy Framework

Developed an innovative line-of-sight (LOS) simulation framework that effectively identifies potential threat areas from firearms and projectiles, as well as the coverage areas of strategically deployed safety personnel. This tool aids security decisionmakers

in assessing vulnerabilities and establishing proactive response strategies.

PROBLEM:

This project addresses the the challenges posed by architectural design

changes during the design phase and post-occupancy, which can significantly

alter how crowds behave during emergencies. Changes in building layout,

exit placements, and overall design can lead to confusion, bottlenecks, or

even panic during evacuations, increasing risk during disasters. Current

tools are inadequate for evaluating the impact of alternative architectural

design features or physical alterations to existing structures on crowd flow.

SOLUTION:

The primary objective is to integrate human behavior modeling with

architectural design and analysis using digital twins, which are virtual

models of physical locations, environments, or systems. This integrated

approach will more effectively guide the design and modifications of

buildings to influence, promote, and enhance the desired crowd behavior

during emergencies, such as active shooter scenarios and bomb threats.

SENTRY RESEARCH PROJECT PORTFOLIO

News & Opportunities

SENTRY Research Leads to Student Success

Prof. Stacy Marsella and

Alyssa Franczak

SENTRY Student, Alyssa Franczak, graduated in April with a degree in Computer Science and Game Development from Northeastern University. She is now starting a position at MITRE. MITRE is a nonprofit organization that operates federally funded research and development centers to tackle complex challenges in national security, cybersecurity, aviation, and other critical domains on behalf of the U.S. government.

As a part of the SENTRY team, Alyssa applied her game development expertise to create a virtual school shooting experience that SENTRY Researchers, Prof. Stacy Marsella of Northeastern University and Prof. Richard John of the University of Southern California used to collect participant data.

She also built a multi-agent social simulation as part of the same event. Her work on SENTRY research expanded her capabilities beyond game development to include social simulation and virtual experiences for human data collection.

Alyssa worked on SENTRY project, Real-Time Management of Adaptive Surveillance and Mitigation. Her experience working on social simulation for SENTRY played an important role in getting the position at MITRE. Congratulations, Alyssa, and best of luck in your new career!

SENTRY Researcher, Prof. Subhadeep Chakraborty of the University of Tennessee is proud to announce that graduate student, Danny Perkins received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) which is a prestigious award for graduate students who demonstrate the potential to make significant contributions in STEM. This award is given based on “intellectual merit” and “broader impacts” of the proposed research and this year, 2,600 fellows were selected from more than 14,000 applicants. Danny was one of only four awardees in the field of “Engineering: Artificial Intelligence”, and one of nine recipients from the University of Tennessee.

Danny Perkins and

Prof. Subhadeep Chakraborty

Similar to the SENTRY research work that Prof. Chakraborty’s team led related to active shooter scenarios, Danny’s research under the NSF GRFP involves the development of an AI-powered evacuation system for such situations. The system combines computer vision, graph neural networks, and deep reinforcement learning to track threats in real time and guide evacuees along the safest and fastest routes. Congratulations to Danny on securing such an honor, and we look forward to seeing how his research progresses!

NEC X Startup Program, Elev X! Ignite, for early-stage technical founders

NEC X, the Silicon Valley venture studio of NEC, one of the world’s largest enterprise technology companies is accepting applications for Elev X! Ignite – Batch 16 through June 30, 2026. Elev X! Ignite is a boutique accelerator designed for early-stage technical founders in the U.S. and Canada which runs in three phases over up to 12 months. This funding and mentorship opportunity is open to graduate students, post-docs, faculty founders, recent alumni, and other early-stage technical founders who may be exploring or building toward a startup.

Selected founders will receive total capital of up to $220K SAFE across phases in addition to direct access to NEC’s frontier technologies, engineering partnership with deep enterprise tech experience, and more.

To learn about the program, to join a live program overview webinar or to apply, visit their website.

Good Practices for the Protection of Public Transport Against Terrorist Threats

June 18, 2026 – 3:00am to 11:30am EDT

(Event is hosted in Madrid, Spain)

The United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism in Madrid (UNOCT), the Spanish National Police, and the Counter-Terrorism Preparedness Network (CTPN) are bringing together security experts and national authorities to share experiences, good practices and approaches that have proven to be effective in the protection of public transport, both nationally and internationally.

The event will build on the high-level launch of the "Technical Guide on Good Practices for the Protection of Public Transport Against Terrorist Threats," which took place on March 18, 2026 in New York. The meeting will be held in Spanish and English with simultaneous interpretation.

To attend the event, register by clicking HERE by June 11. Please make sure you mark the “online” attendance option. Only registered participants will receive the connection details (one or two days before the event).