Fifteen small businesses secured Department of Homeland Security grants worth nearly $15 million combined to carry out prototyping work in 10 topic areas, including an artificial intelligence-based distress alerting system, under the second phase of DHS’ Small Business Innovation Research  program.
The SBIR Phase II awards will facilitate tech development and demonstration activity over two years, DHS’ science and directorate said Tuesday.
Each awardee gains the chance to secure industry or government funding sources to productize tools resulting from the second phase.
Contractors will build platforms intended to support automated AI distress alerts and monitoring, broadband push-to-talk interoperability, airport checkpoint screening for limited mobility passengers, mass fatality tracking, semiconductor-based spectroscopy and detection of counterfeit microelectronics, biological hazards, aerosolized chemical threats, high-consequence toxins and animal diseases.
The awardees are:
- AnalyticalAI
- Caelum Research
- CapeSym
- Caspia Technologies
- Catalyst Communications Technologies
- Lynntech
- Makel Engineering
- N5 Sensors
- Nanohmics
- Novateur Research Solutions
- Radiation Monitoring Devices
- Spectral Labs
- TDA Research
- Vadum
- Yotta Navigation
