Location: Atlantic City, NJ
The Transportation Security Laboratory (TSL) is a Department of Homeland Security Federal Laboratory located at the William J. Hughes Technical Center, Atlantic City International Airport, New Jersey, and is a part of the Science and Technology Directorate. The core mission is to enhance homeland security by performing research, development and validation of solutions to detect and mitigate the threat of improvised explosive devices.
TSL helps protect our nation’s civilian air transportation systems. By virtue of its accomplished experts, cutting-edge facilities and partnerships, TSL offers the homeland security community and transportation security partners the ability to advance detection technology from conception to deployment through applied research, test and evaluation, assessment, certification and qualification testing.
Special Expertise
TSL’s staff of more than 100 employees includes physicists, chemists, engineers and mathematicians who are leaders in explosives detection and mitigation. These talented technical experts have more than 1,000 years of experience collectively. In 2014, TSL processes were re-accredited for A2LA 17025 and ISO 9001 certifications, thereby continuing to meet the most rigorous and internationally recognized standards.
Unique Facilities and Laboratory Capabilities
TSL’s 12-acre secure campus includes specialized explosive storage and handling areas and a multi-laboratory infrastructure designed for applied research, test and evaluation. Its blast-resistant laboratories are equipped to evaluate explosives detection equipment and imaging equipment against an extensive library of domestic, foreign and homemade explosives.
Two satellite facilities at the Tyndall Reactive Materials Group (TRMG) located in Panama City, FL and the Joint FBI-TSA-S&T Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center (TEDAC) Improvised Explosives Detection and Synthesis (TIEDS) Center in Huntsville, AL provide TSL with the capability and flexibility to quickly respond to emerging threats.
Public–Private Partnerships That Expedite Transportation Security Solutions
TSL has more than 30 cooperative research and development agreements with industry and academia. Partners work with TSL to develop capabilities and reduce the time needed to deliver the capabilities to the front line. TSL’s Technology Optimization Partnerships (TOPs) process is a public–private enterprise designed to quickly mature and deploy detection technologies. TOPs help industry understand the detection problems and offer the expertise to assist with technical solutions.
Efficient Certification and Qualification Test Services to Help Industry Usher in Solutions
TSL’s Independent Test and Evaluation group provides certification and qualification tests and laboratory assessments that provide DHS components, including the Transportation Security Administration, with critical information about equipment and its ability to detect explosives. TSL also provides a range of actual explosives to system manufacturers to develop software necessary to locate them within various concealment scenarios.
Our Impact
- TechSpeak Podcast: Teaching Machines to Detect Explosives
- Technologically Speaking Podcast: Improving the Current Fleet
- Blog: Celebrating National Aviation Day: Labs Work Together to Deliver Innovation
- Blog: All Eyes on the Skies During Aviation Week
- Blog: 10 Tips for Firework Safety
- News Release: DHS S&T Receives National Interagency Partnership Award
- Feature Article: S&T’s Transportation Security Laboratory Evaluates Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Technologies
- News Release: Prize Winners Announced in $1.55M Challenge for New Solutions to Detect Opioids in International Mail
- Snapshot: TSL Inventor Helps Keep Detection Systems in Check
- Snapshot: S&T Labs Partner with Responders to Assess Handheld Explosives Trace Detectors
- Snapshot: S&T looks to increase air cargo screening efficiency