UNLV's Information Science Research Institute (ISRI) developed software that soon will be installed on hundreds of computers that deal with sensitive homeland security documents nationwide.

The institute developed the Ecdysis Classification System under contract with the Department of Energy. Using thousands of features, tens of thousands of probabilities, and an extensive database of information, the software analyzes the contents of electronic records to determine if they contain sensitive information.

The software has been licensed to CACI International, which plans to begin initial production use of the system in July.
"Although the system was initially developed as a general purpose classification system, it turns out to be very successful for homeland security applications," said computer science professor Kazem Taghva, who designed the Ecdysis system. "The system is also being used for other applications, including e-mail management."

With DOE funding, the ISRI has been working on the software for three years under the direction of Taghva and computer science professor Thomas Nartker. The institute is housed in the Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering and is fully supported by research grant money. It has 10 full-time employees and hires graduate and undergraduate students for its research activities.