Rochester Institute of Technology Students Help Design the Next Generation of C-UAS Interface
A team of cybersecurity students at Rochester Institute of Technology provided recommendations that are being implemented by the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) to reinforce the counter-drone security systems used to protect U.S. embassies and consulates across the world. Five students collaborated with personnel from the DSS Office of Security Technology to enhance the user interface and user experience of these Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (C-UAS).
From left to right, Rochester Institute of Technology students Nia Poor, David Kumar, John Grinthal, Nicholas Milonni, and Juliet Meza, during H4Diplomacy final presentations in December 2023.
The students, John Grinthal, David Kumar, Juliet Meza, Nicholas Milonni, and Nia Poor, aimed to extract the best features from an array of C-UAS interfaces to streamline the daily operations of DSS personnel who operate C-UAS equipment to provide 24/7 coverage of overseas posts against drone threats.
Based on their research, the students determined that changes were necessary to the UX/UI of the C-UAS systems to benefit the operators who experience screen fatigue and alert fatigue due to long hours at C-UAS systems. These changes include dark mode to reduce eye strain, differentiated alert sounds for different types of objects, a wider array of icons, and the incorporation of hotkeys.
The students DSS sponsor, Roshan Daniel said he plans on making requests to the C-UAS vendors to include some of the students suggestions in the next software update. He also began distributing a survey designed by the students to collect feedback from C-UAS operators on a regular basis.
The students conducted interviews with 83 subject matter experts to collect this data, including the personnel who operate the equipment, to find out what was and wasn’t working. They also visited an Office of Security Technology training facility in West Virginia to interact directly with the C-UAS systems.
Students from the Overwatch team study some of the C-UAS systems currently in use by FSWs during an on-site visit to Summit Point Training Facility in West Virginia.
To demonstrate their findings, the team developed a Wizard of Oz style mock-up, a PowerPoint presentation that simulated an operators’ interactions with a drone detection interface. “When you clicked anything, it felt like you were actually interacting with an interface,” Poor said, “it gives [FSWs] a feel for how a user interface with those implementations would look and feel to work with.”
Daniel said that witnessing students' problem-solving skills and their growth throughout the program was incredibly rewarding. “Approaching the problem from a different lens evoked a lot of new ideas and thoughts within my team,” Daniel said, “after the students visited, people got to talking about solving problems.”
Daniel is participating in Hacking for Diplomacy again in the Spring 2024 semester and working with a new student team from RIT to explore how artificial intelligence and machine learning could be leveraged to further enhance DSS’ C-UAS capabilities.