FY16.1_SBIR_Topic_Descriptions.pdf

APPENDIX A – RESEARCH TOPIC DESCRIPTIONS

APPENDIX A - 1

SBIR TOPIC NUMBER: H-SB016.1-001

TITLE: Security Systems Video/Audio Interoperability Device

TECHNOLOGY AREAS: video/audio transmission, video/audio interoperability, security systems, surveillance cameras, security cameras, CCTV, incident command, situational awareness

OBJECTIVE: Develop a prototype video/audio interoperability device that enables authorized users to access video security systems and rebroadcast the signals with the ease of a “plug and play” solution.

DESCRIPTION: First Responders, such as law enforcement and incident command managers, rely heavily on video and audio technology to increase their situational awareness while onsite at an incident, monitoring an incident from afar, or conducting day-to-day response. Security and emergency response operations are often provided for special events, such as National Security Special Events (NSSE, which is defined as an event of national or international significance deemed by DHS to be a potential target for terrorism or other criminal activity) and for various contingency operations with situational awareness often gathered through the provision of video and audio transmissions that are both digital and analog. There is a need for a device that enables plug and play capture of video and audio from existing surveillance systems. Phase I will design a self-contained concept that will capture video and audio from security systems commonly implemented by both public and private entities. Phase II will use the research from Phase I to develop and build the prototype device, and conduct field testing.

PHASE I: The objective of Phase I is to design a self-contained concept that will capture video and audio from closed-circuit and networked security systems commonly implemented by both public and private entities. The concept will address how to access the video and audio feed with the approval of the owners, and rebroadcast it to first responders for improved situational awareness and providing participant safety.

The concept will enable plug and play access, through hard-wired or wireless capability, to the widest array of existing public and/or private video security systems for use during an emergency or response operation. To optimize the ability for authorized DHS components to readily access on-the-scene information, the concept will consider characteristics of typical video and audio security systems installed in buildings or used to monitor large outdoor areas (such as closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, networked camera systems, their types of inputs and outputs, encryption systems, and wireless of transmissions).

Deliverables will include a detailed concept design of a self-contained, portable interoperability device which enables the capture and retransmission of video and audio signals. The documentation will identify significant types of video surveillance systems (with estimated percentage of users and complexity of each system type), a proposed methodology for accessing these systems, any partial or quick-win solutions for rapid implementation, and a detailed technical description of the proposed portable device and how it could be used. An additional

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deliverable will outline a plan to prevent unauthorized parties to acquire and improperly use the device.

PHASE II: Based on Phase I results, construct and demonstrate the operation of a prototype video interoperability device which enables authorized users to quickly access public and (with appropriate permissions) private systems, for the purpose of providing security and situational awareness.

Deliverables will include a functioning working prototype, a test plan, conduct of a laboratory or field test, and user instructions for operation. In addition, a plan to prevent unauthorized parties to acquire and improperly use the device will address how to transition the final prototype to a product and make it available in the marketplace to authorized users.

PHASE III: COMMERCIAL OR GOVERNMENT APPLICATIONS: The government application of this technology will be for emergency management oversight at incident command centers and to provide situation awareness support at special security events. These applications may include security, fire, emergency medical services, and emergency management.

REFERENCES:

“Closed-Circuit Television.” Wikipedia; The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed-circuit_television

Security Cameras/ Security Systems Fact Sheet: Transit Overview, https://www.pcb.its.dot.gov/factsheets/security/sec_overview.aspx#page=tech

Stowell, Holly. (June 15, 2015). Surveillance for Security and Beyond. Retrieved from https://sm.asisonline.org/Pages/Surveillance-for-Security-and-Beyond.aspx

Private Sector Camera Initiative, Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications. Retrieved from http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/oemc/supp_info/OEMC_Private_Sect_Fa ct_sheet.pdf

KEY WORDS: CCTV, security cameras, video interoperability, video security systems, situational awareness systems, incident command

TECHNICAL POINT OF CONTACT: Marilyn Rudzinsky, 202-254-2328, marilyn.rudzinsky@hq.dhs.gov

SBIR TOPIC NUMBER: H-SB016.1-002

TITLE: Applicability of Blockchain Technology to Privacy Respecting Identity Management

TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Identity, Privacy, and Cybersecurity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed-circuit_television https://www.pcb.its.dot.gov/factsheets/security/sec_overview.aspx#page=tech https://sm.asisonline.org/Pages/Surveillance-for-Security-and-Beyond.aspx http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/oemc/supp_info/OEMC_Private_Sect_Fact_sheet.pdf http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/oemc/supp_info/OEMC_Private_Sect_Fact_sheet.pdf mailto:marilyn.rudzinsky@hq.dhs.gov

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OBJECTIVE: Design information security and privacy concepts on the blockchain to support identity management capabilities that increase security and productivity while decreasing costs and security risks for the Homeland Security Enterprise (HSE).

DESCRIPTION: Blockchain technologies, if incorporated with the security and privacy capabilities required by the HSE, potentially offer a flexible, resilient and potentially lower cost alternative to current Homeland Security Enterprise identity management capabilities.

Current HSE identity management deployments utilize centralized authoritative sources to vouch for the accuracy of the information they collect and maintain. While mechanisms for storing this information can vary (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), databases, Active Directory, etc.), they are ultimately a type of organizationally owned and controlled ledger.

This in turn has led to an ecosystem where processing a transaction to validate information (e.g., birth date) it is necessary to (1) first discover the entity that is considered authoritative for that information, (2) establish the technical means (protocols, data formats, etc.) to interact with that entity, and (3) rely upon the ability and scalability of that entity to validate the information.

Potential examples of this type of interaction within the Homeland Security Enterprise (HSE) are validation of employment status, citizenship, eligibility to work, validation of qualifications of first responders and any other type of interaction that requires a central authority to provide a distributed validation capability.

However, recent innovations around crypto-currencies point to a potential answer to this dilemma. Of particular interest is the underlying technology of the ‘bitcoin’ crypto-currency, which is called the blockchain. The blockchain is in effect a common, public ledger, which utilizes cryptographic mechanisms to verify transactions and information in a decentralized manner.

The potential applicability of blockchain technology goes beyond crypto-currencies (which is simply an application built on top of that technology) to many other uses such as smart contracts, provenance and attribution, distributed validation of information and more.

This SBIR topic is focused on determining and demonstrating if classic information security concepts such as confidentiality, integrity, availability, non-repudiation and provenance as well as privacy concepts such as pseudonymity and selective disclosure of information can be built on top of the blockchain to provide a distributed, scalable approach to privacy respecting identity management.

PHASE I: Analyze the current implementation of the public blockchain technology and develop the concepts and methods needed to demonstrate the implementation of information security principles of confidentiality, integrity, availability, non-repudiation and provenance as well as

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privacy concepts such as pseudonymity and selective disclosure of information on the public blockchain.

This phase will demonstrate the various information security and privacy concepts and methods using a multi-user information-sharing prototype and provide detailed architecture and technical details that document and explain the implementation. In addition, this phase will explore, analyze and document the feasibility of applying the developed concepts and methods to a private or consortium based blockchain.

PHASE II: Apply the concepts and methods developed in Phase I to the domain of identity management – in particular to the assertion and validation of identity information (i.e., attributes).

Phase II will demonstrate via a prototype how such a system could interoperate with existing identity assertion, validation and attribute sharing infrastructure built on top of current protocols such as SAML 2, OpenID Connect and OAUTH2. It will provide detailed architectural papers, technical details and prototype code that explain and document the implementation. In addition, this phase will explore, analyze and provide documentation on the incentive structures that need to be put into place for the adoption of this technology over the status quo.

PHASE III: COMMERCIAL OR GOVERNMENT APPLICATIONS: Potential HSE Applications of this technology include attribute registries used to share emergency responder qualifications, employment eligibility or organizational affiliations as a precursor to physical and logical access control.

Commercial applications include digital contracts, attribution of knowledge work and more.

REFERENCES:

Nakamoto, Satoshi. Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. Retrieved from https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

Buterin, Vitalik. (August 7, 2015). On Public and Private Blockchains. Retrieved from https://blog.ethereum.org/2015/08/07/on-public-and-private-blockchains/

Gault, Mike. (July 5, 2015). Forget Bitcoin — What Is the Blockchain and Why Should You Care?

Retrieved from http://recode.net/2015/07/05/forget-bitcoin-what-is-the-blockchain-and-why-should-you-care/

Security Assertion Markup Language v2 (SDO: OASIS), Retrieved from https://www.oasis-open.org/standards#samlv2.0

RFC 9749: The OAUTH 2 Authorization Framework (SDO: IETF), Retrieved from https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6749 https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf https://blog.ethereum.org/2015/08/07/on-public-and-private-blockchains/ http://recode.net/2015/07/05/forget-bitcoin-what-is-the-blockchain-and-why-should-you-care/ https://www.oasis-open.org/standards#samlv2.0 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6749

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KEY WORDS: cryptography, bitcoin, blockchain, identity, attributes

TECHNICAL POINT OF CONTACT: Anil John, 202-254-8789, anil.john@hq.dhs.gov

SBIR TOPIC NUMBER: H-SB016.1-003

TITLE: Malware Prediction for Situational Understanding and Preemptive Cyber Defense

TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Cyber Security, Cyber Attack Modeling, Resilient Systems, Situational Awareness, Situational Understanding

OBJECTIVE: Develop predictive malware capability and demonstrate a cyber defense method that uses prediction of malware developments to support situational understanding and defensive actions DESCRIPTION: Situational Understanding for Cyber Security is in its infancy. Although many tools and methods exist, breaches and compromises are in the news almost daily, showing that the current state-of-the-art is ineffective. Hundreds of thousands of unique malware samples are collected on a daily basis. With this onslaught of malware, new defensive techniques must be developed. Predicting malware capabilities and malware development would greatly enhance the situational understanding of cyber defenders. Response to attacks typically occurs only after infiltration or infection of a system. Therefore, the defenders are lagging behind the adversaries, granting attackers a window of success before defensive actions are executed. Preemptive cyber defense, in which the defender is anticipating the next attack rather than responding to the previous one, can shift the advantage away from the attacker and on to the defender. As a result, situational understanding is enhanced and cyber defense is improved because attacks are less effective.

Malware-based attacks are a significant concern to cyber security. Currently, signature-based detection approaches fail to capture novel malware variants, and are not timely, as signatures take days to months to develop. Available detection techniques based on machine learning are limited because they are trained on existing sets of malware. Preemptive defense can address these shortcomings by anticipating what the adversaries will do next. Attacks can be reduced by identifying trends in malware development and predicting them over time. Preemptive malware defense requires an effective capability to predict future malware developments and to exploit these predictions for situational understanding and to improve security.

This SBIR topic seeks methods of predicting malware developments, as well as ways of using these predictions to enhance situational understanding and support malware defense. Predictions which are verifiably correct are paramount to the success of the proposed effort. Thus, meaningful ways of evaluating the predictions should be defined. Emphasis should also be placed on how the proposed techniques can be used to enhance situational understand and as part of a malware defense system.

mailto:anil.john@hq.dhs.gov

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PHASE I: Design a preemptive cyber defense method capable of identifying trends in malware and predicting malware developments, identify ways of validating this method, and describe how it would be used for enhanced situational understanding and in a defense system.

PHASE II: Create a prototype by implementing the proposed method in a malware defense system that uses prediction of malware developments to improve situational understanding and cyber defense. Specify at least three appropriate metrics, then validate the prototype with these metrics.

Deliverables for Phase II include validation results of the prototype, delivery of a prototype suitable for pilot implementation in a real world setting with metrics showing enhanced situational understanding, success of predictive malware efforts, and success of a preemptive cyber defense method. In addition, there is a requirement to deliver a plan for Phase III.

PHASE III: COMMERCIAL OR GOVERNMENT APPLICATIONS: This technology will have application in cyber defense efforts of the Homeland Security Enterprise (HSE), and on the commercial market through licensing to software security firms, online providers of software (i.e., application stores), and Government IT providers.

REFERENCES:

Blanch, Rick, “Malware Threats, Trend and Predictions for 2014”, McAfee, 2014

Pfeffer, Avi, et al. "Malware Analysis and Attribution Using Genetic Information." Malicious and Unwanted Software (MALWARE), 2012 7th International Conference on. IEEE, 2012.

Canzanese, Raymond, Moshe Kam, and Spiros Mancoridis. "Toward an Automatic, Online Behavioral Malware Classification System." Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems (SASO), 2013 IEEE 7th International Conference on. IEEE, 2013.

Neugschwandtner, Matthias, et al. "Forecast: skimming off the Malware Cream." Proceedings of the 27th Annual Computer Security Applications Conference. ACM, 2011

Our top 10 predictions for security threats in 2015 and beyond. (November 12, 2014). Retrieved from: http://www.sophos.com/en-us/threat-center/security-threat-report.aspx

KEY WORDS: Cyber Security, Cyber Attack Modeling, Resilient Systems, Situational Awareness, Situational Understanding, predictive analysis, malware analysis

TECHNICAL POINT OF CONTACT: Ann Cox, 202-254-6198, Ann.Cox@hq.dhs.gov

SBIR TOPIC NUMBER: H-SB016.1-004

TITLE: Autonomous Indoor Navigation and Tracking of First Responders http://www.sophos.com/en-us/threat-center/security-threat-report.aspx mailto:Ann.Cox@hq.dhs.gov

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TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Communications, Interoperability, Emergency Preparedness, Response, Community Resiliency, Smart Devices, Wearables

OBJECTIVE: Develop a wearable capability for autonomous indoor navigation and tracking of first responders indoors in various types of building structures.

DESCRIPTION: The S&T First Responders Group (FRG) is devoted to meeting the needs of the first responder community. FRG supports the community’s ability to protect the homeland and respond to disasters by ensuring that they have the equipment, technology, and information they need. This involves leveraging a wide array of innovative thinkers and ideas through a variety of vehicles. The DHS S&T Next Generation First Responder (NGFR) program is designing new technologies and leveraging existing capabilities to solve first responder problems and make them better protected, connected, and fully aware. As part of NGFR, this SBIR topic is targeted at meeting a critical need that previous research and development efforts have not been able to achieve: accurately tracking first responders indoors.

The development of sensors and communications able to perform well across a variety of indoor environments is one of the biggest challenges in first responder tracking research and development. The ability to use a Global Positioning System (GPS) is extremely limiting for indoor tracking capabilities due to its weak signal strength and its inability to penetrate buildings.

There are limited alternatives to GPS, such as wave measurements, magnetic fields, sonar/acoustics, etc. Each alternative comes with both benefits and limitations, and offer varying levels of tracking capability. Previous research and development activities have highlighted the significant challenges associated with indoor tracking. In early 2015, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) provided rules to ensure commercial cellular carriers and equipment vendors can come together to field more accurate indoor 911 wireless caller, (i.e., cell phone), location capabilities (see reference #1 and #2 below) to enable First Responders to derive a “dispatch-able” address based on the location of the cellular telephone. In a similar context, FRG is seeking personalized, modular and scalable approaches to track next generation first responders indoors using current or emerging technologies, sensors, and techniques. The proposed technology must work regardless of materials used in the building structure, (e.g., wood, concrete, steel, glass or any combination of building materials), and of varying heights.

Ideally, a solution will be wearable, self-reporting, provide real-time x, y, z positioning, and will be mission agnostic allowing for use with any first responder practitioner (e.g., law enforcement, firefighter, emergency management, etc.).

PHASE I: Develop a high level concept of operations for a next-generation indoor tracking capability that includes: a listing of the various connected wearable sensors and tools targeted, as well as relevant first responder use cases for their application. The concept of operations for this tracking capability shall include a conceptual, scalable, next-generation architecture that supports multiple communications networks (e.g., Land Mobile Radio (LMR), Commercial as well as Public Safety Broadband, Satellite, Long-Term Evolution (LTE) deployable, Wi-Fi, etc.)

connected to existing and theoretical first responder devices. It shall also embrace a standards-based approach (e.g., Open Geospatial Consortium, BlueTooth, Zigby). Finally, the concept of

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operations shall also include a section outlining the technical feasibility and potential first responder operational improvement areas.

Deliverables include; monthly quad chart that shows task descriptions, percentage completed, targeted completion date, etc.; monthly status calls to discuss the monthly technical report and quad chart.

PHASE II: Based off of work completed in Phase I, develop a detailed next-generation technical architecture. The architecture must identify and propose relevant standards, and interfaces. The offeror must also develop and deliver a minimum of four, or more, working prototypes and conduct trials to evaluate the operational use of the proof of concept based on Phase I use cases. A comprehensive security assessment must also be provided.

Additional deliverables in Phase II include; monthly quad chart that shows task descriptions, percentage completed, targeted completion date, etc.; monthly status calls to discuss the monthly technical report and quad chart.

Finally, there is a requirement to assist DHS S&T Communications, Outreach and Responder Education (CORE) personnel in the development and review of communications materials.

PHASE III: COMMERCIAL OR GOVERNMENT APPLICATIONS: Based on the results of the Phase II trials, there is potential for this technology to be inserted into S&T’s NGFR program and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents needing tracking capabilities while operating indoors.

This technology could also be leveraged by the commercial sector in market segments where people or objects need to be tracked indoors, and by wireless carriers to support FCC Wireless E911 Location Accuracy Requirements.

REFERENCES:

FCC Wireless E911 Location Accuracy Requirements, PS Docket No. 07-114 (March 3, 2015).

Retrieved from: https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-adopts-new-wireless-indoor-e911-location-accuracy-requirements-0

Cellular Carriers Technology Roadmap and Wireless E9-1-1 Location Accuracy Requirements (January 21, 2015). Retrieved from: http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/comment/view?id=60001009867

Project Responder 4: 2014 National Technology Plan for Emergency Response to Catastrophic

Incidents (July 2014), Homeland Security Studies and Analysis Institute. Retrieved from:

http://www.firstresponder.gov/TechnologyDocuments/Project%20Responder%204.pdf

KEY WORDS: indoor location, situational awareness, indoor 3D map, RF ranging, barometric altimeter, velocimeter, inertial measurement.

https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-adopts-new-wireless-indoor-e911-location-accuracy-requirements-0 https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-adopts-new-wireless-indoor-e911-location-accuracy-requirements-0 http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/comment/view?id=60001009867 http://www.firstresponder.gov/TechnologyDocuments/Project%20Responder%204.pdf

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TECHNICAL POINT OF CONTACT: Sridhar Kowdley, 202-254-8804, Sridhar.Kowdley@hq.dhs.gov

SBIR TOPIC NUMBER: H-SB016.1-005

TITLE: Internet of Things (IoT) Low-Cost Flood Inundation Sensor

TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Flood Resilient Communities; Information Sharing; Interoperable Communications; Wireless Emergency Alerts; Alerts (WEA); Warnings and Notifications;

Deployables; Internet of Things (IoT); Sensor Web Enablement; Mesh Network

OBJECTIVE: Develop deployable, low-cost flood inundation sensor for alerts, warnings and notifications to responders and citizens using IoT Wireless Emergency Alerts

DESCRIPTION: Flooding is the nation’s leading natural disaster accounting for the greatest loss of life, property damage, and environmental degradation. Man-made discharge from hydroelectric power supplies, while a controlled release, can result in life-threatening situations as the stage/discharge downstream impacts recreational, residential and commercial properties and people. Flash flooding can result in rapid inundation of low-lying areas, underpasses, and critical transportation corridors—impacting emergency response, isolating critical infrastructure, and posing life-threatening situations. The ability to rapidly predict, detect and react to ever-changing flood conditions requires the ability to monitor flood-prone areas in real-time across large geographies.

Providing flood monitoring across broad areas requires a scalable mesh network of affordable, interoperable sensors. The ability to accurately predict and project the rise of flood waters requires the design and development of a ruggedized, modular, deployable (attached to natural or man-made physical structures), GPS-enabled (x, y and z), submersible, low-cost flood sensor;

it must also have a wireless, sustainable power source that operates based upon open, web-enabled sensor standards that can leverage an open source IoT architecture design. The flood sensors, and their associated mesh network, would first relay information through open data exchange standards for inclusion within an organization’s operation center for analysis. From there, information would relay to hand-held devices through wireless emergency alerting and then to other IoT sensors for detection and verification.

The resulting IoT Flood Inundation Sensor is expected to be designed and developed in such a way to facilitate its commercialization at a commodity-based level to allow procurement and adoption by rural, resource-constrained communities in the United States and around the world.

PHASE I: Prepare an engineering concept report for the design of a modular, low-cost, integrated flood inundation sensor(s) that meets all of the requirements in the description, based upon both best available technology and best affordable technology. The sensor design will be based on current state of the technology as well as based on requirements derived from DHS S&T mailto:Sridhar.Kowdley@hq.dhs.gov

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stakeholder community, including the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) and the Texas Department of Public Safety (TDPS).

Deliverables include; engineering concept report that includes initial schematic design, modular sensor engineering specifications, functional characteristics, performance and operational parameters and target unit cost estimations; monthly quad chart that shows task descriptions, percentage completed, targeted completion date, etc.; monthly status calls to discuss technical report and quad chart.

PHASE II: Develop, deploy, test, evaluate, and monitor a prototype of an IoT low-cost flood inundation sensor(s) mesh network, consisting of a minimum of 100 viable sensor units, based upon the engineering concept report design criteria and user requirements from Phase I. Part of the Phase II effort will be to engage the DHS stakeholders (e.g., LCRA and TDPS) to determine the mesh network deployment, evaluation and performance testing acceptance criteria. The assembled sensors, and the associated application programming interfaces (APIs) necessary to implement the mesh network protocols, will be provided to and integrated with the stakeholder operational centers to perform the operational test and evaluation. The test and evaluation should be performed no later than the 18th month of the contract period of performance, over a period of not less than 4 months to align with the regions annual flooding periods. The DHS stakeholders will provide in-kind services, access to subject matter experts, operation center and other architecture environments necessary to deploy, test and monitor the sensor network deployment and operation.

Phase II deliverables shall include; kick-off meeting; monthly quad chart that shows task descriptions, percentage completed, targeted completion date, etc.; monthly status calls to discuss technical report and quad chart; a minimum of 100 viable sensors, associated APIs and necessary software for implementation, technical implementation guidance, test and evaluation plans, and six (6) months of sensor monitoring and diagnostics for sensor performance.

Performance and evaluation criteria will be co-developed with S&T and stakeholders. In addition, there is a requirement to deliver an engineering findings report for repeatable, scalable commercialization of the IoT Flood Inundation Sensor network toward the end of the performance period.

Finally, there is a requirement to assist DHS S&T Communications, Outreach and Responder Education (CORE) personnel in the development and review of communications materials.

PHASE III: COMMERCIAL OR GOVERNMENT APPLICATIONS: Several flood sensor initiatives highlight the need for early warning for flooding, especially in developing countries. However, even the United States has yet to develop and commercialize a low-cost flood alert, warning and notification sensor capability to address the nation’s most common and costly hazard. Over the last 30 years, the average losses from flood events have been 89 fatalities and $8.2 billion in damages per year.

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The DHS stakeholders involved in this initiative (e.g. LCRA and TDPS) have indicated their interest in deploying a comprehensive mesh network array across their jurisdictional areas of responsibility.

In addition to this homeland security application for flood resiliency and response, other homeland security and commercial applications for open standards-based, modular components could be designed and used toward the following government missions and commercial services:

audio and visual alerts, reverse 9-1-1, road closure routing, onboard transceiver and service applications, and a number of smart city and smart transportation services as an IoT offering.

REFERENCES:

Autonomous Field-Deployable Wildland Fire Sensors. (2003). Retrieved from:

http://www.researchgate.net/publication/245577508_Autonomous_Field- Deployable_Wildland_Fire_Sensors

Cheap Deployable Networked Sensors for Environmental Use. (December 2014). Retrieved from:

http://telsoc.org/ajtde/2014-12-v2-n4/a62

Project Responder 4: 2014 National Technology Plan for Emergency Response to Catastrophic Incidents (July 2014), Homeland Security Studies and Analysis Institute. Retrieved from:

http://www.firstresponder.gov/TechnologyDocuments/Project%20Responder%204.pdf.

Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) Interactive Map: http://maps.lcra.org/interactive.aspx

KEY WORDS: Flood, Internet of Things, Smart City, Open Web Standards, Sensor Web Enablement (SWE); First Responder Early Warning, Resilience; Mesh Network

TECHNICAL POINT OF CONTACT: Jeff Booth, 202-254-6347, Jeffrey.booth@hq.dhs.gov

SBIR TOPIC NUMBER: H-SB016.1-006

TITLE: Low-Cost, Real-Time Data Analytics for Underserved EMS Agencies

TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Communications, predictive (data) analytics, information sharing, incident response and management, operational framework, real-time incident management.

OBJECTIVE: A low-cost, real-time data analytics solution to enable underserved Emergency Medical Service (EMS) and first responder agencies to improve quality and response

DESCRIPTION: While the United States has a National emergency call system, there is no national standard on how these calls are recorded, reported or stored when someone calls 9-1-1.

http://www.researchgate.net/publication/245577508_Autonomous_Field-Deployable_Wildland_Fire_Sensors http://www.researchgate.net/publication/245577508_Autonomous_Field-Deployable_Wildland_Fire_Sensors http://telsoc.org/ajtde/2014-12-v2-n4/a62 http://www.firstresponder.gov/TechnologyDocuments/Project%20Responder%204.pdf http://maps.lcra.org/interactive.aspx mailto:Jeffrey.booth@hq.dhs.gov

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Without a standard, communities have selected from a myriad number of Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) vendors, each with a proprietary software solution and an accompanying set of features and cost models. Not only are there significant differences in the capabilities of these systems, there are different technical architectures, workflows, and use cases. With over 3,100 counties in the United States and no standards, 9-1-1 incident data (as recorded in the CAD databases) can vary from county to county, municipality to municipality, provider to provider and state to state. With such a broad and disparate set of technologies supporting CAD, EMS and first responder agencies vary in how they provide operational response to these call incidents.

Further, this wide range of solutions comes at various costs; this poses a substantial challenge for agencies that have limited resources. EMS and first responders in many communities do not have new infrastructure, which limits or eliminates access to data. Without current and relevant data, change management processes and continuous quality improvement, which inform and improve response during emergencies, is limited or non-existent.

On the vendor side, a very limited number of real-time analytic solutions exist today and they require considerable integration and maintenance. This requirement further pushes the cost of those solutions beyond the reach of many underserved EMS agencies. This limitation in the marketplace has precluded the ability of underserved EMS agencies to become high performing EMS agencies.

This topic focuses on addressing the need for a low-cost (or no-cost) data analytics solution that can support EMS and first responder agencies irrespective of their resource levels. The solutions needs to be low-/no- cost, and must operate independent of proprietary or vendor-specific database architectures, and must enable real-time access, analysis and reporting of CAD data.

The DHS First Responders Group envisions this early-stage work under SBIR to lay the groundwork for a broader, innovation that gives thousands of EMS and first responder agencies the opportunity to become high-performance organizations. Consistent with S&T’s Visionary Goals of Enabling the Decision-Maker and Protecting the Responder of the Future, this work can also seed longer-term efforts to create a national, standards-based solution that supports real-time or predictive analytics for timely, actionable response information and that can drive de facto reporting standards that will enable regional, statewide and nationwide views of operational incident data.

PHASE I: Identify key performance indicators (KPI) from high performing EMS and first responder agencies in varied geographic and rural versus urban settings. This Phase will establish the feasibility of producing a prototype solution that provides a low cost real-time EMS analytics tool, leveraging the identified KPIs. Included in the final technical report will be an analysis of county attributes in different geographic locations.

Deliverables include; monthly quad chart that shows accomplishments, milestones, activities and risks; monthly status call to discuss the monthly technical report and quad chart; and quarterly

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Interim Project Review (IPR) that includes power point presentation on the status of the research, preliminary or expected findings, and any risks associated with work in progress.

PHASE II: Using a subset of KPIs defined in Phase I, develop the data and technical architecture to support a low cost real-time data analytics prototype. Conduct at least two pilots or trials that confirm the operational value of the prototype.

Deliverables in Phase II include; monthly quad chart that shows accomplishments, milestones, activities and risks; monthly status call to discuss the monthly technical report and quad chart;

quarterly Interim Project Review (IPR) that include power point presentation on the status of the research, preliminary or expected findings, and any risks associated with work in progress; and completion of a one page template, to be provided by DHS S&T FRG, outlining a communications and outreach for after Phase II (i.e., list of Government agencies that will benefit from technology, outreach events that will provide partnering opportunities, etc.). During Phase II there is a requirement to assist DHS S&T FRG Communications, Outreach and Responder Education (CORE) personnel with the development and review of communications materials.

PHASE III: COMMERCIAL OR GOVERNMENT APPLICATIONS: Based on the strength of Phase II prototypes and pilots—as well as the strength of a commercialization plan that facilitates adoption—the capabilities that result from this effort will provide the foundation of a real-time data analytics solution which would be available for any US EMS agency as part of their Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) program.

However, there is significant potential for other state, local and commercial healthcare and emergency medical services segments to take interest in and/or invest in bringing this EMS capability to market if it demonstrates the potential to influence efficiencies and outcomes for emergency medical care facilities and professionals.

REFERENCES:

Lawrence, R. (January 1, 2015). 10 Tips to Stay on Top of Your EMS Game. Retrieved from EMSWorld: http://www.emsworld.com/article/12026076/10-tips-to-stay-on-top-of-your-ems-game

Lim, C. S., Mamat, R., & Braunl, T. (June 2011). Impact of Ambulance Dispatch Policies on Performance of Emergency Medical Services. Retrieved from:

http://www.therevproject.com/publications/uwa/J2011-IEEE- Impact%20of%20Ambulance%20Dispatch%20Policies%20on%20Performance%20of%20Emerge ncy%20Medical%20Services-Lim%20Mamat%20Braunl.pdf

KEY WORDS: Emergency call system, standards adoption, quality improvement, computer-aided dispatch (CAD), incident response, technology standards.

http://www.emsworld.com/article/12026076/10-tips-to-stay-on-top-of-your-ems-game http://www.emsworld.com/article/12026076/10-tips-to-stay-on-top-of-your-ems-game http://www.therevproject.com/publications/uwa/J2011-IEEE-Impact%20of%20Ambulance%20Dispatch%20Policies%20on%20Performance%20of%20Emergency%20Medical%20Services-Lim%20Mamat%20Braunl.pdf http://www.therevproject.com/publications/uwa/J2011-IEEE-Impact%20of%20Ambulance%20Dispatch%20Policies%20on%20Performance%20of%20Emergency%20Medical%20Services-Lim%20Mamat%20Braunl.pdf http://www.therevproject.com/publications/uwa/J2011-IEEE-Impact%20of%20Ambulance%20Dispatch%20Policies%20on%20Performance%20of%20Emergency%20Medical%20Services-Lim%20Mamat%20Braunl.pdf

APPENDIX A - 14

TECHNICAL POINT OF CONTACT: Denis Gusty, 202-254-5647, denis.gusty@hq.dhs.gov

SBIR TOPIC NUMBER: H-SB016.1-007

TITLE: Real-Time Assessment of Resilience and Preparedness

TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Community, Economic & Infrastructure Resilience; Emergency Preparedness and Response; Natural Disasters and Related Geophysical Studies; Advanced Data Analysis and Visualization; and Communications & Interoperability

OBJECTIVE: Develop an application to assess a community’s posture with respect to resilience factors (to be provided by the government) using open-source data streams such as print and visual media, government data bases, and social media.

DESCRIPTION: Communities across the United States are in different states of preparedness for a natural disaster. Assessing a community’s resilience requires a dedicated, expensive, and time-consuming data collection effort and produces information that quickly becomes outdated due to ongoing changes in the community. For example, community planners may invest in a new road construction that would influence a community’s resilience factor, but was not captured in the initial data collection. Essentially, evaluating a community’s resilience using existing methods and technology yields a static ‘snapshot’, which, while useful in the near term, is not sufficient to inform federal, state, and local disaster planning efforts.

There is a need for a low-cost, flexible application that can analyze a community’s resilience on a near real-time basis and present this information in visual and data formats on mobile and fixed platforms. The application would access open-source data feeds, such as print and visual media, social media, and community and state government data, and use this information to evaluate a community’s preparedness using DHS-provided resilience factors.

Technical challenges involve the identification of open-source data that are relevant to DHS-provided resilience factors and the development of algorithms to analyze and prioritize these data against the resilience factors. The application must be able to incorporate new data in real time to support an accurate assessment of a community’s resilience state. In addition, the application must be engineered for deployment on smart phones, tablets, and PC platforms.

PHASE I: Develop a program plan that outlines the overall system architecture and technology required to develop the resilience assessment application. The architecture will specifically identify the targeted open-source data to be used and how the data will be analyzed and displayed to a user. Include milestones, description of demonstrations, and a comprehensive technical description of the developed application.

PHASE II: Develop an application that uses open-source data to assess a community’s resilience and provides results to a user. Test the application’s effectiveness in providing accurate mailto:denis.gusty@hq.dhs.gov

APPENDIX A - 15

resilience information (DHS will provide the community and specific disaster of interest six months after the start of Phase II) and provide results of the test.

Provide a comprehensive business plan to make the application commercially available to community, state, commercial, and federal planners.

PHASE III: COMMERCIAL OR GOVERNMENT APPLICATIONS: This technology can strengthen disaster preparedness and response for government entities such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Commerce, as well as State and local governments, commercial insurance firms, and the construction, medical, and foodstuff industries. The data provided through this application will assist community planners and support government and private sector decision-making before, during, and after a disaster.

REFERENCES:

Fine Maron, Dina. (June 7, 2013). How Social Media Is Changing Disaster Response. Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-social-media-is-changing-disaster-response/

Zumbrun, Josh. (August 24, 2015). Economic Forecasting Is Getting More Up-to-the-Minute.

Retrieved from http://www.wsj.com/articles/economic-forecasting-is-getting-more-up-to-the-minute-1440456255

KEY WORDS: Information Collection, Information Management, Collaborative Analysis, Collaborative Decision-making, Social Understanding, Cultural Understanding, Behavioral Understanding

TECHNICAL POINT OF CONTACT: Erin Walsh, 202-254-8248, erin.walsh@hq.dhs.gov

SBIR TOPIC NUMBER: H-SB016.1-008

TITLE: Using Social Media to Support Timely and Targeted Emergency Response Actions

TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Communications, information sharing, technology acquisition, Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD), data analytics, social media, crowd-sourcing

OBJECTIVE: Develop a data analytics engine (set of algorithms) to correlate social media comments and activity with real time agency CAD incident data.

DESCRIPTION: Social media outlets, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, to name a few, have become ubiquitous in the modern world of communications. During real-world emergency events there potentially exists a wealth of unstructured information and unverified datasets about these events that are being shared via social media outlets as the events are http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-social-media-is-changing-disaster-response/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-social-media-is-changing-disaster-response/ http://www.wsj.com/articles/economic-forecasting-is-getting-more-up-to-the-minute-1440456255 http://www.wsj.com/articles/economic-forecasting-is-getting-more-up-to-the-minute-1440456255

APPENDIX A - 16

unfolding. Organizing and correlating this information with CAD incident data already available to the Incident Command could greatly improve the effectiveness of response decisions and actions. This crowd-sourced data, once validated (including an analysis of any potential false positives) could be correlated with actual real-time incident data, so that more timely and targeted response actions can be identified that allow for escalation preparedness throughout the event timeline.

Public Safety, Fire and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) agencies generally use CAD data to understand actions occurring in the past. The data is often aggregated around specific quantitative metrics and does not capture broader, influential external factors including environmental, social, meteorological, political, economic, and other factors. The impact of these factors is often only known as part of post-event analysis as they are not a part of the reportable incident data set available in the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system during the event.

Identifying the types of influential external factors—which are often shared via social media— and correlating those factors with CAD information can drive an enhanced, upgraded, or differing response that could impact community preparedness and resilience. The resultant actionable data will support decision making as events unfold (instead of afterward), better; this serves the community as a whole, reduces risk, and ensures the best use of resources.

PHASE I: Develop a target set of scenarios that would benefit from social media correlation.

Identify the broader external factors, usually discussed in social media feeds, which can improve situational insight to the target set of scenarios. Identify the operational incident (CAD) data that correlates with the social media feeds for the target set of scenarios. Describe the technical feasibility of developing algorithms to correlate social media with incident command data feeds for the target set of scenarios and the potential improvements in real-time/response operations.

Deliverables include; monthly quad chart that shows accomplishments, milestones, activities and risks; monthly status call to discuss the monthly technical report and quad chart; and quarterly Interim Project Review (IPR) that includes power point presentation on the status of the research, preliminary or expected findings, and any risks associated with work in progress.

PHASE II: Down select to a single target scenario based on Phase I and development of the set of algorithms to support a pilot protocol by which a social media feed is correlated with operational incident data. Establish the validation and trust algorithms that could support more timely and targeted response actions and allow for escalation preparedness.

Deliverables in Phase II include; monthly quad chart that shows accomplishments, milestones, activities and risks; monthly status calls to discuss the monthly technical report and quad chart;

quarterly interim project briefings (IPR) that include power point presentation on the status of research, preliminary or expected findings, and risks associated with the work in progress; and

APPENDIX A - 17

completion of a one page template, to be provided by DHS S&T FRG, outlining a communications and outreach plan for after Phase II (i.e., list of Government agencies that will benefit from technology, outreach events that will provide partnering opportunities, etc.). During Phase II there is a requirement to assist DHS S&T FRG Communications, Outreach and Responder Education (CORE) personnel with the development and review of communications materials.

PHASE III: COMMERCIAL OR GOVERNMENT APPLICATIONS: Based on the results of the Phase II technology, an integral standardized output format would be developed, which would post correlated results to a web dashboard for use by local Public Safety officials and 9-1-1 communications dispatchers. Once standardized, a national view of scenarios could then be used by DHS to understand local, regional and state incident data as correlated with social media to better understand risk scenarios that could impact the United States as a whole, or individual states or regions.

REFERENCES:

Wang, Dashun, Lin, Yu-Ru , & Bagrow, James P. (2012). Social Networks in Emergency Response.

Retrieved from http://bagrow.com/pdf/2012-emergbook.pdf

Dillow, Chris. (March 25, 2014). Do social media distort financial decision making? Retrieved from http://www.ezonomics.com/blogs/its_possible_that_social_media_have_at_least_one_downsid e_they_can_distort

Shklovski, Irina & Latonero, Mark. (2011, Oct-Dec). “Emergency Management, Twitter,and Social Media Evangelism.” Retrieved from www.acedemia.edu:

http://www.academia.edu/1071890/Emergency_Management_Twitter_and_Social_Media_Evan gelism

DiMauro, Vanessa. (November 2009). Traditional Decision-Making Process is Disrupted By Social Media. Retrieved from http://www.leadernetworks.com/2009/11/traditional-decision-making-process-is.html

IBM Corporation. (February 2013). Integrating social media and advanced analytics for richer customer insight. Retrieved from IBM Briefing Paper: http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?infotype=PM&subtype=SP&appname=SWGE_YT_YT_USEN&htmlfid=YTS03027USEN &attachment=YTS03027USEN.PDF

KEY WORDS: Social media, social networks, crowd-sourcing, computer-aided-dispatch (CAD), technology integration, 9-1-1 dispatch, incident response.

TECHNICAL POINT OF CONTACT: Denis Gusty, 202-254-5647, denis.gusty@hq.dhs.gov http://bagrow.com/pdf/2012-emergbook.pdf http://www.ezonomics.com/blogs/its_possible_that_social_media_have_at_least_one_downside_they_can_distort http://www.ezonomics.com/blogs/its_possible_that_social_media_have_at_least_one_downside_they_can_distort http://www.acedemia.edu/ http://www.academia.edu/1071890/Emergency_Management_Twitter_and_Social_Media_Evangelism…