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<\/a>What happens when you put together top FBI, DHS, and TSA agents with professionals and students from the United States and the United Kingdom? First, the top minds in the field plot how to destroy a major international airport; next they work in teams trying to identify the research challenges that could prevent the destruction. This mock scenario was the focus of an international workshop that took place August 2-4, 2010 at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ. Two UConn engineering students were among the lucky few to rub shoulders with experienced operational leaders and intelligence experts as they contemplated ways to protect national security assets. The students were Lance Fiondella (Ph.D. candidate in CSE) and Alex Bernier (M.S. CEE).<\/p>\nSponsored by the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s Science & Technology Directorate (DHS S&T), the UK Home Office<\/a><\/span> (UK\u2019s version of the American DHS), and the Office of Security and Counter Terrorism, the Greenfield Aviation Security Workshop, as it was called, was based on the premise that the participants have a \u201cgreen field\u201d on which to build an aviation security system from the ground up.<\/p>\n \u201cWe essentially acted as a think-tank for DHS and the Home Office to come up with long-term research to help redefine how we protect airports,\u201d Alex said. Alex and Lance explained that the mission of the conference was to affect airport security policy by envisioning security in the year 2027. \u201cFrom the perspective of the program manager, you can dump $100,000 into developing a new X-ray machine and it will stop a little bit more terrorism, or you can invest the same $1,000,000 to rethink and reframe policy and implementation of technology to potentially end all terrorism,\u201d Alex said. In this light, the think tank was instructed to think not just outside the box, but outside the decade.<\/p>\n The workshop included roughly 30 young engineers and scientists, representing a wide range of both academic and disciplinary backgrounds, assembled for unconstrained dialogue and sharing of ideas to potentially redefine aviation security. The discourse was facilitated by a third party moderator from the Cambridge, UK based company KnowInnovation<\/a><\/span>, who put the participants to work immediately doing \u201cmental calisthenics,\u201d Lance explained. He said that while exhausting at times, the activities helped to usher in a reasonable DHS aviation agenda for the next 17 years, or until 2027, which was the goal year.<\/p>\n The two men joked that thinking so far into the future was more difficult for the logical engineering brain than for the rest of the participants. \u201cWe were constantly being told by the facilitators that we were in 2027 and many people couldn\u2019t break out of 2010, so we engaged in group brainstorming activities to get us there,\u201d Lance said. He remarked that the social scientists in the group were constantly throwing out hypothetical 2027 scenarios and it was always the engineers who wanted to get back to reality and ask how to get to this hypothetical world. Alex was quick to point out that it was the outlandish suggestions that DHS was looking for, and the engineers were there to see if they could be done. \u201cAs engineers I think we had one of the hardest times really thinking outside of the box,\u201d Alex explained.<\/p>\n