MIT inventor wins $500,000 prize for explosives detection

Every dog will have his day, and this time the canine in question is actually a man — professor Timothy Swager of MIT, whose ability to identify chemical compounds with a single sniff is legendary on the Cambridge campus. This particular skill (or is it a gift?) is of dubious utility most would agree, but fortunately Swager has found another outlet for his interest in smelly things. His work on developing fluorescent polymers that can attract nitro aromatic molecules, a class of chemicals typically used in explosives, was licensed in 2001 to ICx Technologies, manufacturer of our old favorite Fido Explosives Detector. For these efforts, Swager has just been awarded the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize for innovation by a mid-career inventor.

“The originality, practicality and timeliness of Dr. Swager’s inventions made him a stand-out candidate for this year’s $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize,” said program director Merton Flemings, noting that Swager has also made important innovations is the fields of molecular wire; lasing sensors that could someday improve building security; near-infrared optical imaging agents that may enable simpler techniques for screening and diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease; and molecules with high-free volume that could improve the manufacture of semiconductors and liquid crystal displays. But it is his explosives detection work that earned most of the praise. “It is not realistic to put a number on how many attacks have been prevented by early detection of bomb makers and IED’s,” said General Paul Kern in nominating Swager for the award. “But one could easily estimate that hundreds of individuals have avoided serious injury or death as a result of Swager’s chemical inventions.”

In addition to his academic duties, Swager is a standing member of the National Research Council’s Committee on Operational Science and Technology Options for Defeating Improvised Explosive Devices, and is currently in a working group that advises the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO). Swager also co-wrote the proposal that established the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology at MIT and was its initial associate director.

BLUE BOX

From the archives…

ICx Nomadics turns men into dogs with new explosive sniffer

Man’s best friend is a dog, but a dog’s best friend may be the Fido XT Explosives Detector, a portable ultra-sensitive device manufactured by Stillwater, Oklahoma-based ICx Nomadics. National Park Police are currently using the Fido XT as an adjunct bomb-sniffing device alongside canine patrols, not to replace them but rather to enhance the live Fido’s accuracy. “We do not want to say in any way, shape or form that we are better than dogs,” said ICx’s John Sikes. “Dogs are much faster and more efficient than anything else out there, but their side-by-side operations with Fido produced uncanny results.”

The handheld, three pound instrument can even be mounted on a robot, an application suitable to a dog imitator. “It is truly amazing to see these robots maneuver and search for scent using the Fido sensor; they really look like high tech dogs working to find explosive devices,” said Kip Schultz, a canine trainer/instructor with ICx Nomadics. The only difference is the Fido XT does not try and eat his handler’s roast beef sandwiches.

In fact, even using the Fido XT in its handheld configuration requires canine instincts. Dogs instinctively position their noses in the optimum way to expose their scent glands, and the human user must try to replicate the effort by thinking the way a dog thinks. “We’re talking about picking up the stuff you can’t see. When you enter in wind and different environmental conditions, using the device to screen does take some intelligence,” said Sikes. The Fido XT is so sensitive, in fact, that it can detect residue from a pistol that has not been fired in ten years.

In addition to the National Park Police, the Fido XT is in use at the Statue of Liberty and is being tested for use at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.