{"id":203809,"date":"2016-06-21T12:45:29","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T12:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/d45h139.public.uconn.edu\/sites\/news\/?p=22491"},"modified":"2016-06-21T12:45:29","modified_gmt":"2016-06-21T12:45:29","slug":"engineering-alums-gift-to-help-keep-uconn-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2016\/06\/engineering-alums-gift-to-help-keep-uconn-safe\/","title":{"rendered":"Engineering Alum’s Gift To Help Keep UConn Safe"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"UConn
UConn has installed a new system that can detect gunshots and explosions, and send live video feed to officers\u2019 cellphones. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During active shooter events, the speed with which first responders get information is key to saving lives. Thanks to a donation from a UConn engineering alum, UConn police could learn about an event in a matter of seconds.<\/a><\/p>\n

Robert Hotaling \u201901, an electrical engineering alum and the founder of Verbi Security<\/a>, is donating an intelligent gunshot detection and IP device unification platform to UConn. His company\u2019s system detects gunshots or explosions, sends information to campus police through an automated system in a matter of seconds and links the location to maps and video cameras.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat, to me is the difference here; we\u2019re a mobile first solution. We leverage mobile devices to get instant notifications,\u201d Hotaling said.<\/p>\n

Hotaling was inspired to donate the system when a student worker made a routine alumni donation call. After considering the request, Hotaling decided to give something more than just money.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said \u2018I could give you some money, but I\u2019m the founder of this company, I\u2019ve got this tech, and I could make a donation of that tech.\u2019 If it wasn\u2019t for that student, I might not have thought about the donation,\u201d Hotaling said.<\/p>\n

The platform, which Hotaling said is worth roughly $175,000,\u00a0uses military grade intelligent shot detectors to search for specific sounds.<\/p>\n

\"gunshotdetection_DSC02067_alt_small\"
Electrical Engineering Alum Robert Hotaling \u201901 meets with members of the UConn Police. (UConn Foundation Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe sensor listens, but not for the sound of the human voice. The onboard processing algorithm uses fuzzy logic to look for the acoustics of a gunshot or an explosion,\u201d Hotaling said.<\/p>\n

Hotaling stressed that there won\u2019t be an invasion of privacy with the system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no privacy concerns here, all it\u2019s doing is looking for the gunshot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

UConn has not had a problem with shooters, but recognized that the donation could enhance campus security.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re using it to be very proactive,\u201d says Hans Rhynhart, UConn\u2019s interim director of public safety and chief of police. \u201cThis is a great opportunity to test a brand new system that has the potential to be really useful to our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The system can notify officers in a variety of ways, including text messages, iPad notifications and text to speech automated phone calls- which officers are trained to look for.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe officers get the notification, then click on the cameras in the zone and can get a live feed of what\u2019s going on there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The system is also capable of sending alerts to students, faculty and UConn employees with the same sort of fast turnaround.<\/p>\n

Hotaling said that he\u2019s excited by the chance to give back to UConn.<\/p>\n

\u201cI walked those halls,\u201d He said. \u201cI love UConn, I loved my time there, and I\u2019m so happy to be a part of this process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An electrical engineering alum is donating an intelligent gunshot detection to UConn. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":22493,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1866],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-203809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engr"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 04:46:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/22493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203809"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=203809"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=203809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}