The Critical Infrastructure Resilience Institute (CIRI), a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) center of excellence led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, announced a new request for proposals (RFP) for interdisciplinary research, technology development, education and workforce development relevant to the resilience and security of the nation’s critical infrastructure.

Avtec officials and alumni signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Clemson University for a gift-in-kind donation of Scout VoIP dispatching software, products and services valued at about $428,000. The Avtec Scout dispatching system was installed in August.

Urban Shield, the largest regional training exercise in the country, kicked off Sept. 8 with Yellow Command’s interoperable radio tests and a full-scale activation of Commodity Points of Distribution (C-POD) during a simulated Bay Area earthquake response.

With the implementation of new rules governing their use, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) could see an increase in use. During a webinar, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) offered law-enforcement agencies guidance for dealing with commercial UAVs and potential violations of the rules in their communities.

The Radio Club of America (RCA) announced its 2016 award recipients. The recipients will be honored at the RCA 107th annual banquet 18 November in New York City.

New Jersey officials and Rutgers teamed to announce Sept. 7 the statewide implementation of a new text-to-9-1-1 system and introduce a promotional video to drive home the message of “Call when you can … text when you can’t.”

Axon Public Safety Canada, a wholly owned subsidiary of TASER International, partnered with the Canadian Centre of Public Safety Excellence (CCPSE). The training center delivers up-to-date training to law enforcement and public-safety officials.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate’s (S&T) First Responders Group (FRG) is developing and testing a suite of tools designed for first responders deployed during search and rescue operations. In June, search-and-rescue professionals took part in an exercise that allowed them to test S&T’s FIND first hand in Deschutes County, Oregon.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) announced a $40 million funding opportunity for an institution to lead a new DHS center of excellence (COE) for homeland security quantitative analysis. DHS S&T is also searching for potential partners to work with the lead institution in support of the center’s activities.

The world's largest student-run cybersecurity event, founded 13 years ago by the New York University (NYU) Tandon School of Engineering, will expand to NYU Abu Dhabi and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, where finalists from India, the Middle East, North Africa and the United States will compete simultaneously in November.