UCCS team scores high in 2013 National Security Innovation Competition

The National Homeland Defense Foundation selected three winners during its Seventh Annual National Security Innovation Competition April 26 at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort.

A UCCS team earned second place for its project “Vaulted Voice Recognition.” The team members earned a $5,000 prize.

Team members include R.C .Johnson, a UCCS College of Engineering doctoral student, Brian Heflin, a UCCS College of Engineering master’s student, and Claude Burns, a master’s in business administration student from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They were advised by Terry Boult, El Pomar Chair of Innovation and Security.

A total of nine finalists vied for the top honors after being initially chosen by 27 national and homeland security-related industry and government scientists and technologists from across the country. The evaluators scored white paper summaries submitted by each team in a first round conducted several weeks ago.

Schools participating in the competition included the U.S. Air Force Academy (two teams), the University of California, Davis, the U.S. Military Academy, Virginia Technical University (two teams), the University of Wyoming, UCCS and Colorado Technical University.

“I am extremely proud of the UCCS team’s efforts,” Boult said.

First prize was awarded to a team from Colorado Technical University. The third prize winner was a team from the United States Military Academy.

The National Homeland Defense Foundation was established in 2004 as a non-partisan, nonprofit forum and rallying point for U.S. response to terrorism and preparing and responding to natural disasters around the country. The foundation conducts programs throughout the year designed to provide services to its constituents as part of an effort to achieve its mission of “Securing the Future of Liberty” through sharing of innovation, research, education, and information in the fields of homeland defense and security.

Contest sponsors and partners included  5 Star Bank, the Aerospace Corporation, Booz Allen Hamilton, the Consulate General of Canada/Denver, Dorsey & Whitney LLP, Perini & Associates, El Pomar Foundation, ESC Consulting, Homeland Security Today, Larry Mizel Fund, NDIA/Rocky Mountain Chapter, NDIA/Women in Defense, Rocky Mountain Technology Alliance, and the USAA Foundation.