The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) is hitting the road over the next couple of weeks! We are heading to two events to better reach key audiences who can help us tackle homeland security challenges. If you’re attending the International Wireless Communications Expo (IWCE) or South by Southwest (SXSW), I hope you’ll stop by our booth and discuss ways we can work together.
IWCE
From March 5 to 9, S&T will present at IWCE in Orlando, Florida. This annual event focuses on communications, so I’m glad S&T program managers will be discussing the important work we’re doing to strengthen first responder capabilities in this area. We have several panel sessions lined up, and staff will be on-hand at booth #3345 in case you want to chat with S&T directly. We will be joined in this booth by representatives from DHS National Protection and Programs Directorate.
Our IWCE presentations will cover:
- The Project 25 Compliance Assessment Program (P25 CAP)
- Newly-released Next Generation First Responder Integration Handbook
- Findings from the latest electronic jamming exercises
- How data analytics can help responders
- Opportunities for industry to adapt technologies to meet responder standards
SXSW
On Monday, March 12, S&T will travel to Houston, Texas for the annual SXSW Conference and Festival. Given the event’s focus on innovation and thinking outside the box, I’m eager to hear some of the new ideas you have on ways we can work together on emerging issues like smart cities. We’ll be co-hosting a discussion with the Transportation Security Administration, Houston Airport System, AT&T and the Smart Cities Lab to identify ways we can help strengthen smart city resilience, specifically looking at how airports might serve as testing grounds for new technology.
S&T’s SXSW session will discuss questions such as:
- If airports were to serve as proving grounds for smart city technology, what types of data, communications, facilities and systems would you need access to?
- How can we reimagine airports as labs for emerging technology? What are the applications that can be proven at an airport that can then be deployed citywide?
- Who is building new partnerships and experimentations for cities to keep innovating, help drive efficiencies, and produce cross-cutting solutions that improve citizen quality of life?
For those of you attending these events, I encourage you to join S&T’s discussions and meet directly with our staff. If you can’t attend in person, you can follow S&T on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to stay up to date on the conversation.