FBI subaward to SDSU project 15PNIJ-23-GG-04232-MUMU "Statistical Foundations of Score-Based Methods in Forensic Identification of Source Problems"

In support of the South Dakota State University project "Statistical Foundations of Score-Based Methods in Forensic Identification of Source Problems," FBI Laboratory will do the following:

• For this proposal, previously acquired data from recent FBI Laboratory research projects characterizing Al powders will be used. When appropriate, we will seek to approval for public release from the FBI Laboratory Division of the Al powders and Al trace elemental data sets that are used is this research for archiving on Open Science Framework (osf.io).
• The research team consists of four different institutions: three academic and one public forensic science laboratory. There will be weekly virtual meetings via Microsoft Teams organized by the FBI Laboratory, as well as three annual in-person working meetings. The researchers at the academic institutions all have access to personal computing environments, software, research libraries, and personal office space where the research will take place. In the proposal, we have allocated funding to purchase computing resources for Dr. Buscaglia to facilitate improved communication during weekly online meetings, as well as to assist in the report-writing process, and a server for running large scale simulations associated with the U-processes in the asymptotic approximate Bayesian computations. These systems mimic the systems used by the academic researchers and are not currently available at the FBI Laboratory.
• Dr. JoAnn Buscaglia (Joint-PI), Research Chemist at the FBI Laboratory, will serve as the Joint PI. She has more than 35 years of experience in forensic science and research, focusing on highly discriminating instrumental methods of chemical analysis for trace evidentiary materials and pattern evidence. In addition, she has roughly 35 years of experience in the statistical evaluation and interpretation of scientific data, including lecturing in forensic statistics at the graduate level, publications, research, and supervising, mentoring, advising and/or collaborating with doctoral and post-doctoral student researchers and professors on the interpretation of complex forensic scientific data. Dr. Buscaglia will assist Joint PI Dr. Saunders with the preparation of progress reports and deliverables and will work to process data and implement code at the FBI Laboratory for potential transition to casework applications.