The Public Safety Technology Alliance (PSTA) released two new reports and added two working groups.

Purdue University’s College of Engineering is working with AT&T to create a test bed for 5G-based research and development at its Purdue Research Lab. Located in the newly launched Indiana 5G Zone, the lab will use AT&T’s 5G+ millimeter wave (5G+) and commercially available multiaccess edge computing (MEC) technologies to help solve societal challenges such as disaster recovery in rural, agricultural areas and smart cities.

About 150 partner companies participated in the third-annual Operation Convergent Response (OCR2019) event, Nov. 19 – 21, in Georgia. Verizon and Nokia sponsored the annual event. The number of overall or public-safety participants was not available by press time.

The FCC is seeking comment on issues related to unmanned aerial system (UAS) operations in the 960 MHz to 1.164 GHz and 5.03 – 5.091 GHz bands pursuant to a reporting requirement mandated by Congress in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Act of 2018.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) evaluated a suite of in-building sensors developed through the Smart City Internet of Things Innovation (SCITI) Labs effort during a live active shooter exercise at George Mason University’s (GMU) Eagle Bank Arena. The exercise demonstrated how smart building technologies can inform daily operations and improve public-safety and response effectiveness in emergency situations.

A team from Carnegie Mellon University won Public Safety Communications Research’s (PSCR) 2019 Haptic Interfaces for Public-Safety challenge, while Haply placed second in the challenge.

Nokia said it has deployed private wireless networks for more than 120 customers across multiple industries and geographies.

DRONERESPONDERS formed the Major Cities Working Group designed to unite and assist public-safety agencies operating unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in urban and large metropolitan areas.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) awarded Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts to four small technology firms to create solutions that will automate analysis of mobile technology firmware at scale and identify vulnerabilities and prepositioned cyber threats.

Indiana University created a lab to help first responders use emerging technologies on the front lines of disasters and emergency response. Using data science and engineering, the lab will deliver practical resources and solutions to first responders and research ways technology can help us prepare for, respond to and recover from hurricanes, wildfires, floods and other disasters.