Largest international security technology forum launches award to boost innovation in the war against terrorism
The Crowded Places Challenge, sponsored by BAE Systems and the UK's INSTINCT programme, aims to uncover and nurture new security technology that will protect civilians from terrorism in urban areas
The Global Security Challenge (GSC), providers of the leading international competition for security innovators, today announced the launch of the second annual Crowded Places Challenge. The award includes a £10,000 cash grant, sponsored by BAE Systems and the UK's INSTINCT programme, as well as mentorship.
The award aims to bring fresh thinking to the problem of protecting the general public from the threat of terrorism in crowded urban environments. Its goal is to uncover the creative capabilities of innovators in universities and infant companies that may help in countering terrorism and improve the ability to understand and model crowd behaviour, whilst ensuring valuable new technologies can develop and prosper.
Applicants can enter the competition on the GSC's website: www.globalsecuritychallenge.com. Entry is free and all entrants will gain feedback on their submissions. The deadline for submissions is 30 October 2009.
Crowd-Vision, from the ETH University in Zurich, won the Crowded Places Challenge in 2008. Crowd-Vision is a software product that automatically detects and tracks pedestrians while they move under CCTV cameras. Speaking about the award, Dr Anders Johansson from the ETH University said "The award has acknowledged that even without external threats, a huge crowd poses a danger in itself, in terms of overcrowding and crowd disasters"
