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Project Overview

Welcome to the DHS Nuclear Detection Project website for Texas State University

This project, in conjunction with the work of several universities, is a subset of an overall sweeping effort by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) to develop methods whereby information can be gathered, processed and analyzed effectively and efficiently.

Recent advances in nuclear detection technology have yielded innovative instruments and systems that have been of tremendous value to our national security. Additional frontier research in areas critical to our nation will yield similar advances. This is particularly true for the technologies applicable to countering the threat of a nuclear terrorist attack.

The key objective for any research into nuclear detection is to distinguish threats from non-threats in a realistic environment, thereby resulting in a detection system that has minimal to no false alarms. Topics include sensor technologies, stand-off detection, signal processing, data fusion, and autonomous system technologies.

Sample Data

The data used in and provided by this study is purely hypothetical, however the methods for studying the data are offered as solutions for interacting with data in real-time. It details several fiction incidents ranging in severity that chronicle events and actions of terrorist or near-terrorist activities.

The extent of the data is exhaustive, offering information regarding the suspected responsible (and group affilition if applicable), in addition to methods, locations and law enforcement and/or federal agency involvement.

With this data, the research team at Texas State University will explore methods for extrapolating patterns and trends, to provide decision makers with a more accurate portfolio of information as they produce policy.

Project Team & Methods

Dr. Nathaniel Dean

Professor of Mathematics, Texas State University

Until 1998, Dr. Dean was a member of the Software Production Research Department of Bell Laboratories. In 1998, Dr. Dean became an Associate Professor of Computational and Applied Mathematics at Rice University.

Dr. Dean has published over 45 papers, 26 of which are Mathematics, as well as papers in Computer Science. He is well known for his work in a variety of fields including communication networks, network visualization, graph theory and software development.

Jill A. Cochran

Doctoral Student, Texas State University

Jill Cochran is a second year Mathmatics Education Doctoral Student at Texas State University in San Marcos, TX.

After receiving her undergraduate degree for Southern Utah University in 2004, she taught mathematics at Martin Middle School in the Austin Independant School District for three years until returning to college to pursue her PhD.