CSAFE All-Hands Meeting 2019 Highlights and Plans

Site Review and All Hands 2019 Welcome!

Thank you for joining us Warm welcome to: Colleagues from NIST, advisory board members, CSAFE researchers, collaborators from the forensics community, minority-serving institutions and the legal profession, students. External review team. ISU leadership. It is a special occasion: four-year and renewal reviews combined with annual All-Hands meeting.

Grateful to CSAFE staff Sarah Carraher, Communications Specialist. Harlie Jud, Administrative Specialist. Marc Peterson, Research Administrator. Stacy Renfro, Program Manager. Thanks for flawless organizing of this event and for everything else you do every day.

Goals for the All-Hands Meeting Highlight research progress and achievements in outreach, training and education. Introduce our plans for CSAFE Phase Two. As always, enable discussions between researchers in different institutions and with collaborators. Provide a venue for graduate and undergraduate students for networking.

The next two days Tuesday Breakfast from 7:00 am, kick-off at 8:00am. Overview of four main research areas: goals, impact, the future. Poster session at 3:30 pm 44 posters! Reception and dinner at 5:00 pm. Wednesday Breakfast from 7:30 am, kick-off at 8:30am. Discussion of Phase Two plans. Concurrent meetings: continuation of Phase 2 discussion + student session. Lunch at 12:00 pm, adjourn at 1:00 pm.

Rest of tonight Ms. Susan Ballou, Program Manager for Forensic Science in the Law Enforcement Standards Office (OLES) in the Office of Special Programs, National Institute of Standards and Technology. Iowa State University Executive Vice President and Provost Jonathan Wickert. Short video.

CSAFE and NIST CSAFE is a NIST Center of Excellence in Forensic Science. Partnership is formalized via a cooperative agreement: Requires coordination of research and other activities. Goal is complementarity. Enables close cooperation between organizations. Sue Ballou has been an invaluable resource for CSAFE. Oversees NIST-CSAFE collaboration. Provides strategic direction to CSAFE. Has served as a mentor to me in my role as Director, and as great sounding board. NIST/CSAFE Video

CSAFE and Iowa State CSAFE is a consortium of five universities: Carnegie Mellon University, University of California Irvine, University of Virginia, Duke University, and Iowa State University. Iowa State houses CSAFE headquarters. Thanks to the leadership of Provost Wickert and Vice President Sarah Nusser, and to contributions from the LAS college, CSAFE has benefitted from: First rate facilities. New tenure-track faculty lines. Funding for staff and other personnel. Cutting edge instrumentation. We are grateful!

Enjoy dinner!

An Overview of CSAFE

Genesis In response to some highly publicized mistaken forensic analyses, the NRC established a panel of scientists to review forensic science and practice. Some conclusions: Most forensic disciplines rely on subjective assessments. No estimates of error rates. Lack of scientific standards for interpretation and communication of evidence.

Recommendation #1 by NRC Establish an independent federal agency to promote the development of forensic science into a mature field of multidisciplinary research and practice . In response: Creation of the National Commission of Forensic Science. Creation of the Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSAC). Call for establishment of a research, outreach and training center.

Establishment of CSAFE A team led by the late Stephen Fienberg, Karen Kafadar, Hal Stern, David Baldwin and Alicia Carriquiry submitted the successful proposal. CSAFE began operations on June 1, 2015. Three-fold mission: Develop a research program with a focus on pattern and digital evidence and human factors. Establish collaborations with the forensics and the legal communities. Provide training and education opportunities to a wide audience.

Partnership with NIST CSAFE is principally funded by NIST via a $20M 5-year cooperative agreement. As a NIST Center of Excellence, CSAFE Complements and expands forensic science research and outreach efforts at NIST. Provides additional scientific capacity. Contributes to data collection efforts. Increases opportunities for communication and for reaching a wider audience.

Partnership with NIST II Through NIST, CSAFE researchers have Gained access to the community of forensic practitioners. Identified research problems with high potential impact. Established collaborations with top-notch researchers in various disciplines. In turn, NIST has benefitted from interaction with the largest group of statisticians, and other scientists working in forensics.

Academic Partners Four founding institutions, plus recent addition of Duke U. All five are world-class Research I universities: Culture of successful, collaborative research. Outstanding facilities. Well-established mechanisms for outreach. Leadership team has experience and technical ability to conduct and direct research and training.

Academic Partners II Karen Kafadar is Commonwealth Professor of Statistics and Chair of the Dept. of Statistics at the University of Virginia. Bill Eddy is the John C. Warner Professor of Statistics (Emeritus) at Carnegie Mellon University. Hal Stern is Chancellor s Professor of Statistics at University of California Irvine. Brandon Garrett is the L. Neil Williams, Jr. Professor of Law at Duke University. Alicia Carriquiry is President s Chair in Statistics and Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University.

Academic Partners III We remember and honor Stephen E. Fienberg, Maurice Falk University Professor of Statistics and Social Science. He was a founding leader of CSAFE until his untimely death on Dec. 14, 2016.

Other Partners (partial list) Educational and research: Minority-serving institutions: Albany State U., Fayettesville State U., Eastern New Mexico State U. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and University of Maryland. Netherlands Forensic Institute, Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science Dundee. Forensic and law enforcement organizations: Houston Forensic Science Center. Defense Forensic Science Center. Story County Sheriff s Office. Allegheny County Medical Examiner s Office. Private sector: Omni Analytics Innovative Technologies. Sensofar

Advisory Boards Senior Advisory Board Provides strategic guidance to CSAFE leadership. Helps prioritize opportunities. Contributes to assessing performance of Center. Current and past members: Dr. Richard Cavanagh, Director of Special Programs, NIST. Mr. Jules Epstein, Prof. of Law, Temple U. Hon. Judge Barbara Hervey, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Dr. Sallie Keller, Biocomplexity Institute, U. Virginia. Dr. Jeff Salyards, Compass Scientific Consulting. Mr. Barry Scheck, Co-Director, Innocence Project. Sir Bernard Silverman, former Chief Scientific Advisor, Home Office, UK. Dr. Peter Stout, CEO and President, Houston Forensic Science Center.

Advisory Boards II Technical Advisory Board Facilitate exchange of ideas across disciplines. Advise CSAFE on validity and quality of research. Help integrate CSAFE research with NIST directives. Current and past members: Dr. JoAnn Buscaglia, FBI. Dr. Glinda Cooper, Innocence Proj. Dr. Philip Dawid, U. of Cambridge. Dr. Constantine Gatsonis, Brown U. Dr. Will Guthrie, NIST. Mr. Gerald Laporte, NIJ. Dr. Julia Mortera, U. of Roma Tre Mr. Peter Neufeld, Innocence Proj. Dr. Mark Pollitt, DEPS Inc. Dr. Marjan Sjerps, NFI. Mr. Rick Tontarski, Dr. James Lyle, NIST. IntelliForensics, LLC

Advisory Boards III Practitioners Advisory Board Advise CSAFE on transitioning new technology into practice. Facilitate communication with communities of forensic practitioners and legal professionals. Help identify problems of interest to practitioners. Current and past members: Ms. Sabrina Cillessen, Pgm. Manager, Virginia Dept of Forensic Science. Ms. Christine Funk, Criminal Defense Attorney. Ms. Lesley Hammer, Hammer Forensics. Mr. Gary Licht, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Crime Lab. Mr. Matt Redle, Attorney. Ms. Stephanie Stoiloff, Sr. Bureau Commander, Miami-Dade Police Dept. Mr. Robert Thompson, Sr. Research Manager, NIST. Ms. Michelle Triplett, Forensic Manager, King County Regional AFIS.

Administrative/Technical Team

CSAFE Phase I During the first four years CSAFE researchers have: Initiated 30 research projects (most are ongoing). Published 56 papers in peer reviewed journals. Presented 28 invited talks and gave another 91 conference presentations. Constructed and posted high quality databases for: Shoe outsole images. Steganography images. 3D images of bullets and cartridge cases. LA-ICP-MS analyses of chemical composition of float glass. Provided training for over 600 forensic practitioners and over 200 law professionals. Hosted 17 webinars with a total of over 1,000 registrations and almost 1,400 later views.

CSAFE Phase I Most importantly, CSAFE contributed to changing the conversation among forensic scientists, the broader scientific community and the legal profession by: Partnering with major crime labs and individual practitioners. Establishing alliances with the Innocence Project, the ABA and other legal organizations. Communicating, communicating, communicating. As we move toward CSAFE Phase II, we are in great shape, with active, ongoing projects and ideas for many new ones.

CSAFE Phase II More about Phase II on Wednesday morning. Renewal proposal lists: 26 projects in pattern disciplines. 15 projects in digital evidence. 11 projects with a focus on human factors. 7 training and education initiatives. 6 statistical foundations projects with applications in multiple disciplines. 3 projects with an emphasis on trace. Leadership team expanding to include Brandon Garrett (Duke Law). Potential staff expansion to add an Education Coordinator.

THANKS! See you at breakfast tomorrow.