[ Music ]
>> So, I want to introduce Don Roberts,
who is the program manager for the Detection Canine Program
and he's been at S&T since 2006 and working
in the space since 2009.
>> I want to appreciate, you know, the great turn out.
You know, we're-- you know, I've always said that we need--
we need more smart people thinking about our hard problems
in DHS overall, but especially in the canine world.
It's wide, diverse.
You heard about the expansion of our mission's base
in the last several years,
so we're looking for, you know, good ideas.
That's what this event is all about is to hear from you.
I will say that I'm not going to take my whole time.
We're going to have a whole lot more time
in the morning for breakout.
We've got some time in the afternoon,
but if you don't get a chance to talk to us specifically
and get some follow up questions specifically to us,
we on the tables in the breakout session or a few of the folks
that you'll see and speakers have these cards.
This is the website to follow up with, you know, for specific.
If you don't get any questions in this, is the--
this is the email address, but this is the website that has all
of our, you know, our snapshots, things that we put out,
a lot more depth on the program, and, you know,
could after the fact spark some interest.
But, you know, I'm only going
to give basically a high-level overview of the program.
I'm going to lay out at the end a bit
of our research challenges and, you know,
you can see by the agenda we've got some
of our current performers, our stakeholders,
and our customer set that are going
to provide a little bit more detail into some
of the main efforts that we're doing
and hopefully provide some more insight into, you know,
the challenges that they face, you know,
in these operators, you know, daily.
All right.
So, yeah, the canine program overview.
Really our mission, provide the customer with the tools,
techniques, and knowledge to better understand, train,
and utilize the detection canine.
You know, a broad mission space.
You know, our primary customers, you know,
who we serve is the whole
of the domestic canine teams and operators.
Our main focus, as Jay mentioned a bit, you know,
with our expanded mandate has been explosive detection;
however, you know, in the last several years our mandate has
grown to serve the whole of the department
and the homeland security enterprise, which, you know,
includes state, local, tribal, territorial,
law enforcement teams that, you know,
encompass the wider, larger disciplines.
So-- but our mission really is
to improve the operational proficiency.
That's the mandate.
We're doing something
that improves what these guys do on the end user side.
At the end of the day, that's the impact that we want to make.
You know? And, you know, along the way we want to establish us
as a resource for this community and as a federal focal point
for the research development, test, and evaluation.
So, this is the scope.
See, you know, we've got a bit of the, you know,
the kind of Venn diagram is, you know, kind of to scale, but,
you know, our mandate, you know,
in the past has been the orange and the yellow.
But the canine community is broad and diverse and, you know,
that's where we want our capabilities to impact.
That's where we want our programs to start to expand.
That's where we need help.
That's where we need good ideas.
That's where we need experienced folks in those communities, but,
you know, we feel that our--
the capabilities that we've built will serve
that broad mission state-will serve
that broad mission community.
But, you know, we need-- we need to address the expanded scope
and the expansion in the operators as well.
So, you know, this is our program capabilities
in a larger sense.
You know, we've established these, we're looking
to enhance these capabilities with your help.
You know, we're looking for better mechanisms
to share knowledge and be a more effective federal focal point
in this space.
You know, we want to provide better analysis tools.
You know, we want more-- as I said, more experts,
more smarter folks in this arena helping us solve these
challenging problems and gaining insight
into this sensor platform
that we don't have a lot of insight into.
You know, we want-- you know, we want to be able
to enhance our capability to rapidly assess vulnerabilities,
operational performance, and on emerging and current threats.
We also want your help in providing, you know,
better outreach to the whole
of the homeland security enterprise, you know,
the federal sector as well as state and local law enforcement.
So, that really is the scope, the program capabilities
that we're looking to enhance and looking for more good ideas.
You know, next few slides I'm going to talk about some
of our past and ongoing efforts and I hope
that it gives a better feel for some of our challenges
in providing tools, techniques,
and knowledge to these operators.
So, these are some of the examples
of the tools that we talk about.
You know, one being our nonhazardous
or a nonhazardous training aid.
You know, we focused in the peroxide-based--
this was a number one priority from TSA when I took
over the program in 2009.
And, you know, this-- what I want to emphasize is this type
of product, especially in the explosive realm,
takes years of development.
That's what it takes to provide what we say in this--
in this program is statistically significant scientifically
rigorous validation of this data set in order to verify
that this product, you know, is a good alternative.
Especially in the explosive realm.
We can't be wrong, so we have to do this kind
of extensive test and evaluation.
Not only laboratory, but verified with the detector set.
You know, in this case, you know,
the gold standard has been, you know, in being able to imprint
with this type of training aid, then validate
that it gets the base material.
You know, this is-- this is the gold standard.
This is why it takes so long.
We want to be able to, you know, shrink that development time
in getting these products out to the end user, look for new
and innovative ways to get these products out, get them cheaper.
You know, in this case, TSA is taking the lead
and driving the economy of scale, but, you know,
we want better ideas to get these things affordable
to the state and local law enforcement, you know,
the communities, the counties, the municipalities
that have two, three dogs.
You know, that's where we've got
to get innovation is shrinking the development time
and cost-to-market.
Some of the other tools that we have, are using, and, you know,
are looking for further innovation and great ideas is,
you know, laboratory techniques to see where the canine works.
You know, down below the level of the detection
of the canine at room temperature.
That's where our detectors work.
That's what we need laboratory support for.
Especially with these, you know, low vapor pressure odors.
These things that, you know, we had to develop this technology,
this technique, when we were developing these training aids
to confirm that we had something there,
you know, at room temperature.
But we've also used this
to measure the effects of concealment.
You know, what kind of odor availability is there
when we're getting artful concealment methods.
You know, if there's no detection, there are no odor,
there is no detection with this platform.
So, sometimes we're asking these operators to fill a gap
that they just can't do with this detector
and we need better insight into that.
We need these tools to be able to do that in the lab
and then take them out and run them by the detector
to see whether we've got confirmation on that.
So, you know, we're looking for more innovation
in laboratory for that.
We've also used this tool at this level of detection
to determine whether we've got cross-contamination
in explosive training aid storage.
You know, that's a key piece.
You know, are these operators really truly training their
detectors on what they think they are or, you know,
so we've done multi-agency tests where we've brought this--
brought a number of operators, training aids, to the machine
to be able to see that there was--
we did see that there was cross-contamination.
So, we've got tools to do a bit of this now.
You know, we need better tools.
We need-- we need it, you know,
out there supporting some other ideas that we have.
Some of these things-- the REDDI event, you know,
it's in training tools.
We look at it, you know, this is a tool that we're using
for our outreach with state and local law enforcement.
You're going to hear a little bit more about that later
in our state and local outreach, but, you know, we use that
and I think that's-- that should be of interest for some
of the state and local operators here.
We're looking for more partnerships for--
with the state and local operators and, you know,
our REDDI events have been that mechanism
and that tool for that.
You know, one other tool that we've used in our test
and evaluation has been this MACE tool.
It's a-- you know,
it's a tablet-based data collection tool.
You know, it allows us during the test, you know,
that touchscreen ability to follow the dogs
as they're working in odor recognition and operations
and the key piece with this is it allows us
to have real-time results shown and looked at during the test.
Instead of, you know, shuffling papers and going
and calculating, it allows us-- it's been a very effective
and efficient tool at a lot of the testing
that we've done with our operators.
OK. Some of the, you know, the techniques that we've talked
about in tools, techniques,
and knowledge really are our independent operational tests
and evaluation efforts.
You know, we feel that-- we feel are unique.
We-- in our methods and our data collection, we employ, you know,
scientifically rigorous-- again, you're going to hear me say
that a couple times-- statistically significant,
you know, we get repeatability.
It's not just a one-off test that the dog happened to be,
you know, have a cold that day, we have no clue.
That does not give us insight
into how this detection system works
on a given day, what we can rely on.
So, we're looking for more innovation and effective ways
to measure operational performance.
You know, again, we want to be able in our scope
to inform training more effectively, more efficiently
at the end of the day to impact operational performance.
That's the mandate of the program.
You know, we-- we're looking at the training and operations,
the person search, you're going
to hear a little bit more about that.
That's an effort we took on back in 2012 with a partnership
with University of Maryland Police Department.
We have several of these partnerships to be able not only
to have operational detectors out there that we can--
we can go and prove some of our R&D concepts
like early proof concepts of our training aids
and nonhazardous training aids,
but also in this case we're utilizing them to prove
out a training methodology, a maintenance burden
to these teams, and-- bottom line--
we're able to do a parametric assessment
of these person-search dogs.
And to, you know, that was something that I think more
and more folks in the operations side are starting to think,
you know, especially for the soft target crowded places
that we need these types of canines to support this realm.
You know, we're in the business of understanding what
that can do for the operators, what the operators can rely on.
So, that's something
that collecting this parametric data set, you know,
over the course of the years we've been working with them,
it's a long time-- long-term research project.
We'd like to be able to do that more efficiently.
So, you know, ideas in that realm, but other things,
tools for these PB guys.
We've been working with TSA and you'll hear
from the training center, you know, TSA,
you know, has put themselves out there
and really challenging themselves to get better
in the operations and that's where our independent test
and evaluation efforts
in developing the passenger screening canine teams,
you know, they have tested, they've tweaked the training.
You'll hear about some of the issues
that the TSA training folks have.
And then they've tested again, you know,
and that's how they improve upon
and not only what they're training and the efficiency
that they're training on, the effectiveness of that,
but also improving the CONOPs and tweaking
that to optimize that.
So, that's something that we've been doing is, you know,
our techniques in independent T&E, but, you know, we need--
we need better insight.
We need-- we would like to be able to do these things.
You know, the canine teams are not like technology.
We cannot, you know, we can't
over a weekend collect 5000 data points and get a raw curve
and everything's all good.
You know, that's not what we know
about these canine detectors.
There are still unknowns and so when we're--
they're supporting in a critical infrastructure, deployment,
trying to get an operation-- a performance we can rely on.
We really need to do this over a long term, so innovation help
with those ideas, that is what we're looking for.
I'll-- yeah, a rapid response to emerging threats.
You know, we-- I mentioned a bit of that early in capability.
This is a capability we have.
We've supported TSA and the state and locals that, you know,
by these partnerships that we established and looking
to establish more, you know, we can go to some operators
and gather 50 dog teams in a region and see
if the basic maintenance training is allowing a
capability on a particular emerging threat that we have.
We've done this over the years.
We can get answers in a couple of weeks
with these partnerships that we've built.
You know, it's a very valuable, you know, entity and technique
that we've developed and-- but again, you know, we're looking
for innovation and ideas in maximizing and making
that capability more efficient.
Odor generalization is really, you know, an effort that we did
with the TSA training center.
It's a unique place there.
It allows us to have access to not onesie, twosie dogs, but,
you know, we were able to get 70-plus dogs in this study
to really see that if we imprint a green dog, dog that, you know,
hasn't been exposed to explosive odor before, on a smaller set
of odors-- this was focused on explosives--
can they generalize to a larger set.
You know, these family of odor theories have been
around a long time, but they're, you know,
too many studies come with, you know, very hard
and fast conclusions but they had four dogs.
You know? And to be-- they're not working dogs,
they're shelter dogs.
So, you know, we have to make sure
that we're providing the best information for these operators
to build and grow and improve their program.
So, this was another effort that we've done, but, you know,
we're looking for other efforts.
We again want to inform how to make their job easier.
How to make their training more effective and more efficient.
In the knowledge area, really this is--
this is probably an area that, you know,
we can use the most innovation and help with, you know,
we kind of lump the understanding
of the basic structure and function in this area,
the more of the basic research.
You know, you'll hear more from Dr. Kari a little later
in her talk about our efforts that Jay mentioned
that Congress is helping us.
They-- that was one of the areas that they've directed us to look
into and, you know, in this-- in the breeding and early learning
and selection and the genetics work.
Kari is going to talk a little bit about that at the end,
so I'm not going to-- I'm not qualified nor--
to talk about that a bit.
Kari is much more-- much smarter than I am in that area,
but one of the things that we do is sharing knowledge,
is doing some studies that inform, you know,
some best practices and going towards standardization
about these storage and handling.
Really we did some laboratory efforts
to really evaluate a number of different storage efforts
that the community was using and came to validate that, you know,
the way TSA was doing things,
the way FPS was doing things was pretty good way to do things.
But, you know, again we have some validation in that
and that's kind of the
knowledge that we want to be able to share.
In the more basic research, early learning,
Megan mentioned the Silicon Valley Innovation Program.
You know, we're working supporting CBP.
A requirement came out from CBP to have real-time monitoring
of health effects in the CBP dogs working
in a more physically stressful environment.
You know, they wanted a broad brush, but, you know,
folks at TSA will tell you that their dogs go walking
in the airport, so it's not a physically stressful environment
necessarily, but, yeah, this was something
that CBP wanted as-bubbled up as a requirement
to the Silicon Valley folks, so we're working
that with a small company that, you know, has a unique solution.
As Megan said, these are-- these are, you know,
a couple of people companies that,
you know, have some good ideas.
So, the scope is not just the larger companies, but it is,
as Megan showed, we're trying to make doing business
with us easier and a bit more, you know--
end of the day, do things that impact our operators.
So, that's really all the, you know, the programmatic work.
You know, I kind of showed at a high level
of what we have done, what we are doing.
There's a lot of folks working in this area, you know,
in the federal side supporting this-- FBI, ATF, you know,
others that are serving this community.
You know, they're working hard, but, you know,
as everyone in this room knows, there's a lot of unknowns.
A lot of unanswered questions.
So, you know, I'm hoping that, you know, this--
these areas and, you know,
the talks coming later will spark some interest
and innovation for us going forward.
But-- put the next one, please.
You know, we've tried to frame out a few
of our research challenges as we see it.
You know, I'm hoping this is not the limit of what's going
through everybody's head-- hey, I've got great idea,
I think it's great-- but, you know, we kind of wanted
to put this out here as our research challenges, you know,
that we want to have more dialogue.
You know, I-- we're going to have a little bit more time,
you know, in the morning break.
I think most of the, you know,
the meaningful discussions happen during these networking
breaks, so I'm glad that Megan-- her team factored these in,
but-- and our breakout sessions later today.
But, you know, what we're looking
at here is really fitting in two areas.
I'm not going to go through all of them, but, you know, kind of,
you know, one is, you know,
optimizing our training methodology.
You know, I've said that we want--
we want to be able to have these guys train more effectively,
more efficiently.
Tools, techniques, and knowledge to do that.
End of the day, you know, improving deployment strategies.
How can we tweak some of the CONOPs
to maximize our operational performance?
You know, what are some of the tools, techniques,
and knowledge we can-- we can utilize to do that?
You know, the other one is really, you know,
can we get better at understanding what, you know,
what nature has provided us in this, you know, the best,
most flexible, mobile, versatile odor detection tool we have
at our disposal, you know,
in supporting the homeland security mission.
You know, that-- this-- we haven't been able--
we're just getting able to be--
challenge the laboratory community
in seeing below their level of detection at room temperature.
So, you know, this is where I think is a broad area
of research that's unexplored.
You saw that we're not, you know,
we're not just explosives anymore.
We have a broad mandate
to support the whole of the community.
So, you know, that's where--
that's where I think we really have the areas for growth.
So, I think that brings us to our break, the aforementioned.
What I'd like to do is leave this slide up here,
you know, during the break.
You know, everybody can, you know, ask us what we mean
by some of these things.
You know, it's totally fine, but, you know,
afterward we'll reconvene and we'll hear from, like I said,
the-- some of our current program performers
and stakeholders and customers who will lay out
and hopefully provide a bit more insight into some
of our main efforts and into the challenges they face and,
you know, spark some further in-depth discussion
after their talks for the breakout sessions.
[ Music ]