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Science and Technology Directorate Office of Research Human Factors Division Focus Areas
- Biometrics and Credentialing Focus Area
- Community Preparedness and Resilience Focus Area
- Countering IED Attacks Focus Area
- Human Systems Integration Focus Area
- Suspicious Behavior Detection Focus Area
- Technology Acceptance and Integration Focus Area
- Violent Radicalization, Motivation and Intent Focus Area
Biometrics and Credentialing Focus Area
Focus Area Overview: Research to establish multi-modal biometrics, improve biometric sensor acquisition, increase the accuracy of biometric identification, improve biometrics system security, enable mobile biometrics and develop non-traditional biometric modalities. Research in this area will enable easier and more secure credentialing and will allow the identification of otherwise unknown persons whose biometrics have been previously acquired.
Community Preparedness and Resilience Focus Area
Focus Area Overview: Research to help the government and public prepare for the possibility of catastrophic events, avoid dangers through timely, comprehensible and credible warning systems and mitigate impacts during emergencies and in their aftermath. Important concerns are identifying and ameliorating the impacts of catastrophes on persons, businesses, and communities, and establishing links that promote preparedness and resilience between the governmental and private sectors.
Countering IED Attacks Focus Area
Focus Area Overview: Research that focuses on humans as perpetrators and victims of improvised explosive device (IED) attacks. Some efforts focus on getting “to the left of the boom” and forestalling danger by countering violent extremism and enabling the prediction and prevention of likely planned attacks. Other efforts focus on responding to IED attacks in progress or completed and on promoting resilience in the face of completed attacks.
Human Systems Integration Focus Area
Focus Area Overview: Research into how to design and implement technology and performance protocols in ways that maximize the effectiveness of human, and hence total system, performance. Included is research into the effects of stressors like the task repetition confronting Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners, work on cognition in security-relevant tasks and research on more effective ways to train homeland security workers.
Suspicious Behavior Detection Focus Area
Focus Area Overview: Research to detect behavior correlated with an elevated likelihood of intent to cause harm. The goal is to increase the chance that those intending harm will be stopped at the nation’s borders and transportation hubs while allowing those with legitimate business to more easily and quickly pass check points. Related research is aimed at identifying organizational insiders who take advantage of their position to do harm. Other work seeks to train security officials in protocols and procedures that will allow them to better identify people who merit intensive screening.
Technology Acceptance and Integration Focus Area
Focus Area Overview: Research to enhance the safety, effectiveness, and usability of technology by systematically incorporating user and public input. This research proceeds by bringing together citizen panels to review and respond to technologies at various stages of S&T development. The panels typically pay special attention to health, privacy, civil liberty and usability concerns.
Violent Radicalization, Motivation and Intent Focus Area
Focus Area Overview: Research focused on terrorist motivation, intent, recruitment, mobilization, and operation to help understand whether radical groups are likely to engage in violence and what ideological, organizational, and contextual factors may influence violent intent or spark action. Goals include identifying, collecting and analyzing information that sheds light on these matters and building computerized tools and models that allow for the more effective assessment of the dangers that different individuals and groups pose.
This page was last reviewed / modified on May 19, 2009.