UMD’s XFoundry School Safety Grand Challenge Won by Team DefenX
- CATS2 Foundation
- Nov 7
- 2 min read
CATS2’s leadership and OWL integration helps inspire the next generation of innovators protecting America’s schools.
The Center for Applied Technologies for School Security (CATS2) is proud to celebrate the winners of the University of Maryland’s inaugural School Safety Grand Challenge, part of UMD’s xFoundry Xperience program. This fall, Team DefenX clinched the top prize of $250,000 for their AI-powered school security solution. DefenX’s victory marks the culmination of a challenge to develop a real-time system for detecting and responding to active shooter threats in schools.
This achievement has roots in CATS2’s early involvement with xFoundry. Last year, CATS2 founder Dr. Lisa Dolev was instrumental in making school safety the program’s first grand challenge focus. In November 2023, Dr. Dolev presented at xFoundry’s inaugural topic selection event, inspiring a 70% majority vote to choose “school security solutions” as the competition theme. Her advocacy paid off: school safety was selected as the Xperience competition topic, engaging 14 teams (nearly 90 students across 12 UMD colleges) to tackle this critical issue.
“We wanted to inspire a generation of engineers and entrepreneurs to make school safety their moonshot.”
— Dr. Lisa Dolev, Founder of CATS2
As the competition got underway, CATS2 became an active partner in the teams’ development. We provided access to our OWL for Schools emergency communication platform for all competitors. The OWL system, a mobile app for school staff and a dashboard for administrators, provides real-time situational awareness and clear guidance during emergencies. By integrating their prototypes with OWL, teams tested how their concepts triggered emergency alerts and responses. This collaboration allowed the teams to refine their solutions with practical feedback, making CATS2 a true partner in their success.
Team DefenX’s winning solution exemplifies the innovation CATS2 hoped to inspire. DefenX developed an AI-driven system that uses existing school security cameras to detect a visible firearm within seconds and automatically track the suspect’s movements through the building. Once a weapon is identified, the software pinpoints the shooter’s location and dispatches instant alerts to teachers, administrators, and law enforcement.
The xFoundry School Safety Xperience competition engaged dozens of talented students to address a critical real-world problem. By partnering with UMD on this grand challenge, CATS2 empowered young innovators to turn their passion for protecting schools into tangible solutions. Team DefenX’s success is a proud milestone in this partnership. As DefenX begins piloting their technology in K-12 schools, CATS2 will continue to support such efforts, advancing our shared mission to make schools safer for everyone.
Find out more about University of Maryland's XFoundry Grand Challenge here:
See DefenX in action here:
