The long and diverse borderline of the U.S. Poses a great challenge for HSE to manage IT in an efficient way

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate has awarded a $999,807 Cooperative Agreement to The University Corporation, a non-profit organization in Northridge, California. The award is funded through the Scientific Leadership Awards (CFDA 97.062) program, which aims to build a pipeline of diverse talent knowledgeable in DHS-related sciences.

The project focuses on leveraging recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and unmanned vehicles (UVs) to improve border security operations. Key research components include AI-based swarm control, graph theory for formation control, and security of AI-driven swarm systems, with applications in counter-drone technology. The education component integrates these research objectives, providing CSUN and local community college students with exposure to this cutting-edge DHS-focused research and internship opportunities. This is intended to enhance the diversity of the homeland security workforce.

One promising direction to explore is utilization of unmanned vehicles (UVS) to help to secure and manage the borders. To fully unleash the potential of UVS to improve the operation efficiency on border security, IT is necessary to leverage recent progresses in AI for UV control and use different types of UVS to form a swarm. The research component of the project focuses on three aspects of building such system for HSE tasks: AI-based swarm control, graph theory for formation control, and security of AI-driven swarm, including their applications in counter-drone. The education component is integrated with the research tasks. By collaborating with a wide range of stakeholders (DHS coes, industry partners, and community colleges), the project will expose students from csun and partner community colleges to cutting-edge researches on swarm for HS tasks, and obtaining internships opportunities. These experiences helps them to pursue higher degrees and finally enhance the diversity of high quality HSE workforce.