A groundbreaking new Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate tracking and location technology, Precision Outdoor and Indoor Navigation and Tracking for Emergency Responders (POINTER), will soon allow agencies to pinpoint their firefighters to within centimeters, helping to navigate them quickly and safely out of potentially disorienting emergency scenarios.
When responding to a chemical incident, mitigating long-term consequences of exposures is just as important as treating short-term injuries. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and FirstString Research have partnered to repurpose Alpha-connexin Carboxyl-Terminal 1 (aCT1) eye drops as a potential medical countermeasure against chronic eye injuries associated with sulfur mustard exposure.
To develop capabilities to monitor the current COVID-19 pandemic and other future biological events, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP) has awarded $199,648 to Mesur.io Inc, for analysis and reporting of outbreak-related data.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is making $20 million available through the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grant Program to help communities across our country develop innovative capabilities to combat terrorism and targeted violence. The TVTP Grant Program application period will close on May 25, 2021. State, local, tribal, territorial governments; non-profit organizations; and institutions of higher education are eligible to apply for funds to establish capabilities or fill gaps in their prevention capabilities.
Major events in any community are a massive planning effort. For public safety, this means planning to stay connected over open airways, which is achieved over public safety spectrum bandwidth. Having enough bandwidth is key to effectively coordinating staffing and communications resources. A grant from the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) is working to address this.
FLIR Systems Inc. announced it will team with Purdue University on a contract worth up to $8.0 million from the United States Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Joint Science and Technology Office to rapidly develop next-generation chemical detection solutions based on ion mobility spectrometry and mass spectrometry technology.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is updating K–12 school guidance to reflect the latest science on physical distance between students in classrooms. CDC now recommends that, with universal masking, students should maintain a distance of at least 3 feet in classroom settings. The updated strategy is part of CDC’s resources for K–12 schools to open and remain open for in-person instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is currently piloting the U.S. Department of Energy’s Technical Resilience Navigator (TRN), a novel web-based resilience planning tool co-developed by PNNL in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory for the Federal Energy Management Program. The TRN helps users identify and manage risk to mission-critical infrastructure from disruptions in energy and water services.
Southern California can now expect to see post-wildfire landslides occurring almost every year, with major events expected roughly every ten years, a new study led by U.S. Geological Survey researchers finds. Geologists routinely conduct landslide hazard assessments after wildfires occur, but there is often not enough time between a fire and a rainstorm to implement an effective emergency response plan.
First Responders face challenges when they are called to the scene of an incident. Seconds count, and routing provided by in-vehicle terminals or popular navigation apps may help them arrive fast, but does not consider emergency vehicle-specific factors like size and turning radius, road hazards, or special road rules applicable to law enforcement, firefighters, and emergency medical services. The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate is announcing that an app, QuickRoute, aimed at tackling this challenge is available for responders to download.
