UCCS to compete in National Security Innovation Competition

U.S. Finalists Chosen to Compete in National Security Innovation Competition
Three Colorado schools make it to the finals, including UCCS

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO- Ten finalists from the nation's most prestigious universities were selected to compete in the annual National Security Innovation Competition (NSIC) in Colorado Springs, Colorado, May 1.

The competition is presented by the National Homeland Defense Foundation and sponsored by the Colorado Homeland Defense Alliance and the Colorado Springs Technology Incubator.

The top three team projects will receive cash scholarship awards and will be featured at the 2009 National Homeland Defense Foundation Symposium. The entries selected promote national security-related innovations and expose novel technologies in areas such aerospace, defense, security, and first responder activities. Finalists include:

· Georgia Institute of Technology (undergraduate team): First Responder Mobile Tracking System

· University of Buffalo: Vulnerability Assessment and Response Tool Against 0-Day Exploits

· Arizona State University: A Hybrid Electrochemical-Colorimetric Sensing Platform for Detection of Explosives

· University of Arizona: Contactless Fingerprint Sensor

· Colorado School of Mines: Activity Recognition in a Dense Sensor Network

· University of Colorado at Colorado Springs: Mitigating Drug Resistance in MRSA via Metabolic Inhibition

· Georgia Institute of Technology (graduate team): PneumoCheck: A Novel Lower Airway Particle&Pathogen Collection Device

· University of Notre Dame: Enterprise Network Activities Visualization

· University of Denver: Light-weight High-performance Concrete

· Virginia Tech: Self-powered Border Security Systems

The final round of the competition will consist of oral presentations given to a panel of homeland security and defense experts. The following is a list of industry organizations with officials that will participate in judging:

. Science & Technology Division of the Department of Homeland Security

· U. S. Northern Command

· Raytheon

· National Laboratory Representative

The event will be hosted at MITRE Corporation's Colorado Springs office. MITRE is a not-for-profit national technology resource that has 7,000 scientists, engineers and support staff to provide systems engineering, research and development, and information technology support for critical national security issues.