2020 Year in Review

A Message from the FTCoE 2020 was a big year for the Forensic Technology Center of Excellence. With five podcast seasons, a full research and development symposium, our first virtual conference, eight reports, and over thirty webinars, we continued to…

Success Story: Advancing Mixture Interpretation Analysis with NOCIt

NIJ and Rutgers University Report Date September 2020 Impact “One could argue that a better approach than opting for the minimum number of contributors to a mixture might be to determine the number of contributors best supported by the data.”…

Success Story: Advancing 3D Imaging for Footwear and Tire Impressions

NIJ and Purdue University Report Date May 2020 Impact “Purdue’s 3D scanner promises to be a game changer as it allows the fast collection of the 3D detail of impressions with minimal training.” – James Wolfe, Alaska State Crime Laboratory, retired…

Success Story: Revolutionizing Laboratory Efficiency Assessments Through Project FORESIGHT

NIJ and West Virginia University Report Date March 2020 Impact “Iron sharpens iron. Project FORESIGHT is built on collaboration among peers, and enhanced with academic and economic support—it provides actionable and realistic data to assess how well a lab is…

Success Story: Enabling Forensic Field Testing with Paper Microfluidic Devices

NIJ and Florida International University Report Date April 2019 Impact “I’m impressed with the potential for replacement wet color tests. The multiplexing capabilities have potential to address the challenges field forensics investigators encounter with non-pure, intermixed drugs as well as…

Success Story: Improving DNA Mixture Interpretation with the Help of Machine Learning

NIJ and Syracuse University Report Date March 2019 Impact “This is something that every DNA crime lab worldwide should investigate. We now have a tool that with the press of one button does the entire suite of services and provides…

Success Story: Advancing 3D Virtual Microscopy for Firearm Forensics

NIJ and Cadre Forensics Report Date March 2019 Impact “High-resolution 3D surface topographies coupled with advanced software analysis are providing firearm examiners unprecedented new tools for microsurface examination.” – Dr. Ryan Lilien, Chief Scientific Officer, Cadre Forensics Click here to…

Success Story: Uncovering Key Details of Skeletal Remains through 3D-ID Software

NIJ and North Carolina State University Report Date January 2019 Impact “3D-ID has been an invaluable tool for us. Many of our unknown persons come from populations south of the Border. We use this program for every case with great…

Success Story: Establishing a “Microbial Clock” to Improve Time of Death Prediction

NIJ and Multi-Institute Academic Team Report Date April 2018 Impact “This research clearly demonstrated that there is potential to develop microbiome tools for estimating time of death. Developing connections with the right interdisciplinary collaborators was instrumental to the success of…

Success Story: Maximizing the Use of Mitochondrial DNA in Identifying Remains and Aiding Missing Persons Casework

NIJ and the American Registry of Pathology Report Date April 2018 Impact “The complete mtGenome reference data developed in this project serve as important milestones for the understanding of coding region heteroplasmy and the acceptance of full mtGenome sequencing in…