The 15th annual IEEE Symposium on Technologies for Homeland Security (HST ’16), will be held 10 – 12 May, in the greater Boston, Massachusetts area. This symposium brings together innovators from leading academic, industry, business, Homeland Security Centers of Excellence, and government programs to provide a forum to discuss ideas, concepts, and experimental results.

Produced by IEEE with technical support from DHS S&T, IEEE, IEEE Boston Section, and IEEE-USA and organizational support from MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Raytheon, Battelle, and MITRE, this year’s event will once again showcase selected technical paper and posters highlighting emerging technologies in the areas of Cyber Security, Biometrics & Forensics, Land and Maritime Border Security, and Attack and Disaster Preparation, Recovery and Response.

We are currently seeking technical paper, poster and tutorial session submissions in each of the areas noted above. Submissions should focus on technologies with applications available for implementation within about five years. All areas will cover the following common topics:
• Strategy and threat characterization, CONOPs, risk analysis,
• Modeling, simulation, experimentation, and exercises & training, and
• Testbeds, standards, performance and evaluations.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Attack and disaster Preparation, Recovery and Response
Targets include: Small events (10s - 100s of victims), large events (1,000s - 10,000) catastrophic events ()100,000s)
• Cloud Computing and “Big Data” analytics to support prediction, and integrated/interoperable decision support
• Planning and Preparation techniques for pre-positioning supplies, and locating, tracking, and tasking first responders
• Situational Awareness / Situational Understanding, Information Sharing and Data Visualization
• Decontamination and restoration strategies, approaches, and sensors following WMD events
• Preparedness, Risk, and Resilience measurement and performance tracking
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Land and Maritime Border Security
Targets include: Individuals, facilities and monuments, airports and airspace, seaports and maritime, transportation
infrastructure, land borders and ports of entry
• Radiation and nuclear threat characterization, risk assessment, sensors and detectors
• Nuclear forensics
• Personnel screening
• Container/Compartment/Vehicle screening (Detection, monitoring and tracking)
• Ground surveillance
• Port (land, sea and air) surveillance
• Automated target recognition and identification
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cyber Security
Targets include: Federal networks, computers and control systems
• Secure, resilient systems and networks
• Mission Assurance
• Command, control, and interoperability
• Situational awareness (enterprise-level, regional, global)
• Information sharing, privacy-aware security, data anonymization
• Network recovery and reconstitution
• Supply chain monitoring and defense
• Process control system security
• IP telecommunications security, wireless security
• Global-scale identity management
• Cyber security economic modeling, security metrics
• Attack modeling and characterization
• Cyber security incident response
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Biometrics & Forensics
Targets include: People and assets

BIOMETRICS
• Biometric recognition based on DNA, voice, fingerprint, iris, face, handwriting, gait, and other modalities
• Statistical estimation of stability and distinctiveness
• Datasets, corpora, and evaluation
• Multimodal biometrics
• New biometrics and novel sensing technologies
• Legacy biometric systems
• Robust biometrics with respect to standoff, environmental conditions, and channel impairments
• Analysis of biometric applications

FORENSICS
• Evaluation of the scientific basis, validity, and reliability, and uncertainty of forensic analyses under realistic case scenarios
• Statistical estimation and reporting
• Human observer bias and sources of human error with forensic sciences
• Tools and protocols (automated and manual) for forensic examinations, methods, and practices
• Nationwide and international biometric data interoperability
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Paper Submissions
Prospective paper authors are invited to submit one or more detailed abstracts by November 30, 2015. These abstracts are to be three to four pages in length (minimum 12 point font) and will serve as the basis for acceptance of papers for the conference. Authors will be notified of the review result (i.e., acceptance or rejection), with any applicable comments, by February 1, 2016. Depending on program needs, some prospective paper authors may be asked to present a poster in lieu of an oral paper presentation. The abstract should include the authors(s) title, name, address, phone, fax, email and organizational affiliation within the four page limit. Attached to this should be a one page or shorter biography of the presenting author.