LIVERMORE, Calif. – When a hurricane approaches landfall, local, state and tribal governments must work together to decide whether and how they should evacuate large populations to save lives. Emergency managers must make quick decisions, often with outdated information and computer models. To ensure that emergency officials are better prepared to respond efficiently, researchers at […]
Category Archives: Homeland security
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X-ray vision: Bomb techs strengthen their hand with Sandia’s XTK software
September 6, 2016 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — In the chaos that followed the terrorist attack at the 2013 Boston Marathon, bomb squads scanned packages at the scene for explosive devices. Two homemade pressure cooker bombs had killed three people and injured more than 250, and techs quickly had to determine if more were waiting to blow up. They got […]
Sandia’s California site invites community to 60th anniversary celebration
May 11, 2016 – 5:00 am
LIVERMORE, Calif. –Sixty years ago, the Giants played baseball in New York and the Athletics in Kansas City, Dwight Eisenhower was president and Sandia National Laboratories opened its California site in the city of Livermore, which at the time had a population of under 10,000. Because of Sandia’s California site and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, […]
Sandia inks emergency response pact with California Fire and Rescue Training Authority
March 30, 2016 – 5:00 am
LIVERMORE, Calif. — Sandia National Laboratories and the California Fire and Rescue Training Authority (CFRTA) this month signed a memorandum of agreement to develop new concepts and capabilities for emergency planning, exercise and response. The agreement was signed by Marianne Walck, vice president of Sandia’s California site and the Energy & Climate program, and by […]
City resilience: Sandia analyzes effects of rising sea levels in Norfolk
March 28, 2016 – 5:00 am
Analysis method available to cities that want to become more resilient ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — In Norfolk, Virginia, an East Coast city that’s home to the world’s largest naval station and important seaports, catastrophic flooding could damage more than homes and roads. A new study from Sandia National Laboratories assesses how much the city, its region […]
Suicide bomb detector moves forward with Sandia engineer’s help
February 18, 2016 – 10:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — On the chilling list of terrorist tactics, suicide bombing is at the top. Between 1981 and 2015, an estimated 5,000 such attacks occurred in more than 40 countries, killing about 50,000 people. The global rate grew from three a year in the 1980s to one a month in the 1990s to one […]
Managing the data deluge for national security analysts
November 17, 2015 – 5:00 am
Sandia Labs research rethinks finding patterns in motion, makes sensor images searchable ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — After a disaster or national tragedy, bits of information often are found afterward among vast amounts of available data that might have mitigated or even prevented what happened, had they been recognized ahead of time. In this information age, national […]
New vice president to oversee energy, security, nonproliferation research at Sandia
September 8, 2015 – 2:00 pm
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories has appointed James M. Chavez vice president of its Energy, Nonproliferation and High Consequence Security Division and its International, Homeland and Nuclear Security Program Management Unit effective Sept. 11. He replaces Jill Hruby, who became Sandia president and labs director in July. Most recently, Chavez has served as the […]
‘Laboratory Biorisk Management’ details safety, security methods for biosciences sites
August 25, 2015 – 5:00 am
Sandia, international experts publish first biorisk management how-to book ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Recent mishaps at laboratories that mishandled potentially dangerous biological substances and the transmission of the Ebola virus in a U.S. hospital are symptoms at bioscience facilities that two Sandia National Laboratories researchers think could be prevented by implementing the practices in a new […]
Sandia teams with industry to improve human-data interaction
August 13, 2015 – 5:00 am
Research to create tools to improve how intelligence analysts gather visual information ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Intelligence analysts working to identify national security threats in warzones or airports or elsewhere often flip through multiple images to create a video-like effect. They also may toggle between images at lightning speed, pan across images, zoom in and out […]
Sandia tamper-detecting seal is tough to fool
July 7, 2015 – 7:20 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A critical area of security is ensuring that something inside a container stays there. Sandia National Laboratories has made the job easier with an innovative technology that detects signs of tampering. “In our world, one advance by an adversary can make a security technology obsolete overnight,” said Dianna Blair, manager of Sandia’s […]
New Sandia director will be first woman to lead national security lab
June 22, 2015 – 8:55 am
Jill Hruby to become 14th director in Sandia’s 66-year history ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Jill M. Hruby today was named the next president and director of Sandia National Laboratories, the country’s largest national lab. She will be the first woman to lead a national security laboratory when she steps into her new role July 17. A […]
New fog chamber provides testing options that could improve security cameras
June 17, 2015 – 5:00 am
Controlled fog at Sandia Labs makes testing optics more cost-effective, efficient ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Fog can play a key role in cloaking military invasions and retreats and the actions of intruders. That’s why physical security experts seek to overcome fog, but it’s difficult to field test security cameras, sensors or other equipment in fog that […]
Robot Rodeo at Sandia Labs showcases bomb squad expertise
May 14, 2015 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Bomb squads from across the country saddled up their robots and are duking it out at the ninth annual Western National Robot Rodeo and Capability Exercise at Sandia National Laboratories. The five-day event offers a challenging platform for civilian and military bomb squad teams to practice defusing dangerous situations with robots’ help. […]
Asian American engineering honorees credit families for success
February 19, 2015 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Two scientists at Sandia National Laboratories thought back to their roots when they won Asian American Engineer of the Year (AAEOY) awards: Somuri Prasad to a village in India and Patrick Feng to a refuge in America. Prasad’s father helped found the first school in his native Pasumarru in the Krishna District […]