The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) hosted Forensics@NIST virtually Nov. 18-20, 2024. During this three-day event, NIST scientists delivered presentations on advanced methods in metrology, computer science, and statistics to enhance forensic science.
On Nov. 20, the Center for Statistics and Applications in Forensic Evidence (CSAFE), a NIST Center of Excellence, presented a session titled “Enhancing Forensics Through Innovation, Tools, and Training.” This 90-minute session highlighted the resources CSAFE offers to the forensic science community, including a suite of open-source software tools and various educational opportunities.
Alicia Carriquiry, CSAFE director and Distinguished Professor and President’s Chair in Statistics at Iowa State University, started the session with a quick overview of CSAFE before going in-depth on the resources available to the forensic and legal communities.
Heike Hofmann, professor of statistics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, then provided an update on the development of BulletAnalyzr, a software tool that calculates the probability that bullets came from the “same gun” by using 3D images generated by most imaging systems.
Stephanie Reinders, CSAFE research scientist, discussed the features and capabilities of Handwriter, CSAFE’s open-source software tool that computes the probability of writership of a questioned document for a closed set of possible authors.
Finally, Anthony Greiter, CSAFE learning and development specialist, provided an overview of the courses and resources available through CSAFE Learning.
You can watch the presentations at https://www.nist.gov/news-events/events/2024/11/forensicsnist-2024. CSAFE’s presentations can be found at the beginning of Day 3 in the list of videos.
