James Madison University Students Enhance Data Collection Efforts for Lifesaving Security Equipment
Five students from James Madison University spent a semester investigating the Department of State Diplomatic Security Service’s (DSS) process for repairing and replacing lifesaving security equipment at overseas embassies and consulates. As a result of their research, the Office of Security Technology (ST) has begun implementing recommendations to improve their data collection processes to better determine the lifespans of x-ray and explosive detection equipment.
From left to right, James Madison University students Samantha Boyles, Kevin Cheely, and Ai Vy Le, present their solution proposal at State Annex 20 in December 2023.
The students, Regina Allen, Gianna Baorto, Samantha Boyles, Kevin Cheely, and Ai Vy Le, conducted 50 informative interviews with subject matter experts to learn more about the equipment lifespan problem. The most important interviews to their research, the students say, were with the DSS Security Technical Specialists (STSs) who travel to overseas offices to repair and replace machines.
Through these interviews, the team learned that at the heart of the problem was the assumption that all machines would have relatively similar lifespans. “That’s just not true,” Cheely said, “You've got machines that can last out to ten years and you have machines that are lasting as little as five years if they're in a high traffic location.”
The team realized that this assumption was costing DSS tens of thousands of dollars annually on repairing equipment that needed to be replaced and replacing equipment that had more life left in it. The students brought this discovery to their ST sponsors, Matthew Fister, Stephen York, and Varnell Butler, to workshop a way forward.
As a group, the students and sponsors created a plan to redesign the questionnaires that STSs use to collect data on these machines and make decisions about their maintenance. “The issue is data collection,” Baorto said, “[Security Technical Specialists] are not being asked the right questions. We had this congruent realization that a big part of what needs to be changed is what’s being asked.”
Midway through the semester, Butler took the students’ recommendation and began to make updates to the x-ray machine maintenance survey that is used by all STSs worldwide. STSs will begin collecting data on bag count, machine on time, and x-ray on time, variables that will be used to better project the lifespan of these machines. These changes, the students argue, will make it easier for the STSs to make informed decisions, and reduce unnecessary spending.
Creating better standards for data collection is just the beginning of their proposal. “Once we get that data” Boyles said, “that's when [Office of Security Technology personnel] can start… coming up with an algorithm that can go into how the lifespan can be expanded.” From there, the students propose codifying the data collection process and algorithm in the Foreign Affairs Handbook so that better decisions can be made about life-cycling equipment in the long term even as new technologies arise.