Bolstered homeland security and public safety

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security was in need of advanced tools to improve operations across its organizations, including the Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Coast Guard, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Customs and Border Protection.

That’s why, in 2017, the agency turned to ASU researchers for help and established a DHS Center of Excellence. Dubbed the Center for Accelerating Operational Efficiency, it is housed in GSI with ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering as a core partner.

DHS has selected only a handful of universities across the country to lead research efforts in its Centers of Excellence.

“That DHS chose ASU for this Center of Excellence speaks to ASU’s commitment to impactful, use-inspired research,” said Center Director Ross Maciejewski when the center launched. “We will develop new research and translate existing research into useful tools, such as data analytics, economic analysis or operations management systems, that DHS organizations can put in place for improved decision-making and effectiveness.”

Off to a great start

In its first year, the center conducted groundbreaking research to improve efficiency and security at national borders, seaports and airports by using multidisciplinary, customer-driven and practical solutions.

To raise passenger satisfaction and reduce wait times without compromising security, researchers in the center began developing a decision-support tool to simulate and visualize TSA security screening checkpoint operations with ever-changing passenger demands. Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and El Paso International

Airport were chosen as test sites for the tool, which is expected to benefit up to 900 million passengers per year by reducing wait times for passengers at U.S. airports.

Responding to COVID-19

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, the center sprang into action. Working directly with DHS, the center helped some of the agencies charged with responding to the pandemic plan for and overcome both anticipated and unanticipated challenges.

For example, the center pivoted an ongoing project to address expected supply chain challenges around medical equipment and vaccines. The focus areas shifted to equalizing statewide access for vaccines, deploying ventilators by forecasting demand, simulating disease transmission, examining social distancing policies, and creating logistics for distribution of antivirals.

The center also added new projects, including one that estimated the economic impacts of COVID-19 on the U.S. and its major trading partners, examining six scenarios that ranged from a minor event to a disaster.

Another added project aimed to provide health care, economic and public policymakers with models that could determine how the pandemic and associated policy responses would affect the U.S. economy.

Making AI tools more trustworthy partners

AI is a growing presence in our lives with great potential for good. It’s increasingly used in sectors like health care to aid in diagnosis and drug discovery, in finance to navigate the stock market, and in transportation to power self-driving cars.

While most people may not harbor active suspicion against AI, they may have low trust, much like you might have for a complete stranger. If an AI system diagnosed you with a disease, for example, would you pursue treatment right away or would you seek out a second opinion from a human health professional?

It also plays a role in our national security. Regardless of whether the U.S. embraces AI technology, other countries will — countries with possibly different values than our own.

To that end, the center worked on a project that will help the U.S. government and industry acquire AI technology that people will feel confident using. Funded through DHS, the research group tested whether a new evaluation tool effectively measures the trustworthiness of AI systems.

The TSA’s federal security directors from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, San Diego International Airport and Las Vegas Harry Reid International Airport each organized volunteer officers to participate in the study. Officers interacted with one of two simulated AI systems — one reliable, one not — that the ASU team created. Then they used the evaluation tool to indicate their level of trust with the system.

If the ASU team is able to show that the evaluation tool is useful for assessing AI trustworthiness, it will help in building and buying systems that people can rely on — paving the way for AI’s smooth integration into critical sectors, protecting national security and multiplying its power for positive impact.