Cadets develop IED detection software

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WEST POINT, N.Y., Aug. 27 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army reports the development of software that can identify weapons caches and predict the location of improvised explosive devices.

The software was developed by three cadets at the U.S. Military Academy.

The software uses a mathematical model based on the research theory of geospatial abduction. That model of software -- Spatio-Cultural Abductive Reasoning Engine -- was a creation of Maj. Paulo Shakarian, an assistant professor in the academy's department of electrical engineering and computer science.

"This was an interdisciplinary effort" that involved a number of organizations and a team of deployed combat engineers tasked with an explosive investigation unit in Afghanistan, which tested and provided results of the software, he said.

"The Combat-SCARE-Afghanistan is a new piece of software that includes the road network, tribal information and a lot of external intelligence, which is the cool stuff I'm not allowed to talk about," said Class of 2013 Cadet Jeff Nielsen. "A lot of great things have happened to show that this program can actually contribute to the fight and save lives by finding these weapons."