Forging an Anti-terrorism Search Tool

Abstract

Researchers at the University of Buffalo (UB) are developing browser technology that endeavors to identify hidden connections in vast collections of documents. Rather than simply looking for matches to specified query terms, which is what typical search engines do, the UB technology seeks to uncover connections between ideas. According to John McCarthy, professor emeritus of computer science at Stanford University, a tool that successfully links concepts could be an important breakthrough. A number of federal agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), are investing in the research, which they hope can be used to find the sorts of connections that will aid efforts to fight terrorism. The project has been used to search the report from the 9/11 Commission as well as public Web pages, looking for connections regarding the hijackers. The tool searches for concepts such as names, dates, and places and maps the connections it finds, potentially resulting in trails of evidence useful to investigators or other authorities.