Fearlessly Forward: DefenX Pioneers a New Era of School Security
From left: retired NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps M.S. '94, Ph.D. '00; UMD President Darryll J. Pines; Christyl Johnson, deputy associate administrator of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate; DefenX team members Nithin Skantha Murugan, Ian Njenga, Arnav Dadarya, Niyant Patel, Srinidhi Gubba, Smithi Mahendran and Utkarsh Gupta; College of Education Dean Kimberly Griffin; and xFoundry founder and CEO Amir Ansari. [Picture by: Kevin Roach]
A multidisciplinary group of Terp innovators beat the competition with a cost-effective, real-time threat detection system designed to make schools safer
UMD student innovators DefenX recently secured the top prize in the xFoundry School Safety Xperience Competition, securing a $250,000 investment for their groundbreaking AI software. The team's solution is designed to provide immediate detection and tracking of weapons in schools, dramatically reducing the critical time between an incident and emergency response.
For the students of DefenX, this project is deeply personal. “We all have been a part of the American education system… and we don't want any student, staff member, or teacher feeling the fears that we felt,” said DefenX team member Srinidhi Gubba, ‘26 (Computer Science and Individual Studies). “The team found that existing security solutions relied on expensive, stadium-grade technology, leaving many schools without accessible, effective options.”
The Innovation: Tracking Threats in Real Time
DefenX’s solution is revolutionary because it is cost-effective and highly specialized. Their proprietary AI integrates with a school's existing security camera infrastructure.
(Listen to their WTOP interview here)
Applied machine learning graduate student Nithin Skantha ‘26, explained the core capability: “Once the technology detects a weapon, it tracks the person carrying the weapon throughout the school. Even if [a threat] goes in the frame of different cameras, they go into blind spots; we track them as soon as they appear back in a different camera. That's the specialty that we have.” By ensuring continuous tracking, the software provides authorities with invaluable real-time location data to speed up response and neutralize threats.
From IDEA Factory to National Victory
The journey to this major victory spanned 18 months in the rigorous xFoundry Xperience program. Bringing together students from computer science, finance, and engineering, the team’s success highlights the power of UMD's xFoundry’s collaborative TEAMS (Technology, Entrepreneurship, Arts & Athletics, Marketing, and Science) approach. Judged on speed, accuracy, scalability, and cost-effectiveness by industry experts and leaders, DefenX’s solution secured the winning investment at xFoundry’s second annual NEXPLORE summit in September 2025, held at Amazon HQ2 Arlington, Virginia.
What’s Next: Scaling for Safety
With the $250,000 investment award, DefenX is ready to move into the deployment phase. "We're going to prioritize trying to get our name across the school industry, trying to deploy our product or even do some pilot tests,” said Smithi Mahendran ‘27, (Computer Science). Funds will also be used for stronger processors necessary to run the AI models in a real-world environment.
Looking forward, the team aims to expand their scope to create a true multimodal solution. Ian Njenga ‘25 (Accounting) noted that while the focus is currently on gun violence, the underlying technology is versatile. “Students fight, students fall, students get sick. So, we're thinking about training multiple models that can work for all these kinds of scenarios and help us become a much better multimodal solution for schools.”
DefenX is a powerful example of UMD students leveraging their multidisciplinary backgrounds to create a scalable solution. This commitment to solving a grand challenge truly embodies the mission to go Fearlessly Forward.
A multidisciplinary group of Terp innovators beat the competition with a cost-effective, real-time threat detection system designed to make schools safer
UMD student innovators DefenX recently secured the top prize in the xFoundry School Safety Xperience Competition, securing a $250,000 investment for their groundbreaking AI software. The team's solution is designed to provide immediate detection and tracking of weapons in schools, dramatically reducing the critical time between an incident and emergency response.
For the students of DefenX, this project is deeply personal. “We all have been a part of the American education system… and we don't want any student, staff member, or teacher feeling the fears that we felt,” said DefenX team member Srinidhi Gubba, ‘26 (Computer Science and Individual Studies). “The team found that existing security solutions relied on expensive, stadium-grade technology, leaving many schools without accessible, effective options.”
The Innovation: Tracking Threats in Real Time
DefenX’s solution is revolutionary because it is cost-effective and highly specialized. Their proprietary AI integrates with a school's existing security camera infrastructure.
(Listen to their WTOP interview here)
Applied machine learning graduate student Nithin Skantha ‘26, explained the core capability: “Once the technology detects a weapon, it tracks the person carrying the weapon throughout the school. Even if [a threat] goes in the frame of different cameras, they go into blind spots; we track them as soon as they appear back in a different camera. That's the specialty that we have.” By ensuring continuous tracking, the software provides authorities with invaluable real-time location data to speed up response and neutralize threats.
From IDEA Factory to National Victory
The journey to this major victory spanned 18 months in the rigorous xFoundry Xperience program. Bringing together students from computer science, finance, and engineering, the team’s success highlights the power of UMD's xFoundry’s collaborative TEAMS (Technology, Entrepreneurship, Arts & Athletics, Marketing, and Science) approach. Judged on speed, accuracy, scalability, and cost-effectiveness by industry experts and leaders, DefenX’s solution secured the winning investment at xFoundry’s second annual NEXPLORE summit in September 2025, held at Amazon HQ2 Arlington, Virginia.
What’s Next: Scaling for Safety
With the $250,000 investment award, DefenX is ready to move into the deployment phase. "We're going to prioritize trying to get our name across the school industry, trying to deploy our product or even do some pilot tests,” said Smithi Mahendran ‘27, (Computer Science). Funds will also be used for stronger processors necessary to run the AI models in a real-world environment.
Looking forward, the team aims to expand their scope to create a true multimodal solution. Ian Njenga ‘25 (Accounting) noted that while the focus is currently on gun violence, the underlying technology is versatile. “Students fight, students fall, students get sick. So, we're thinking about training multiple models that can work for all these kinds of scenarios and help us become a much better multimodal solution for schools.”
DefenX is a powerful example of UMD students leveraging their multidisciplinary backgrounds to create a scalable solution. This commitment to solving a grand challenge truly embodies the mission to go Fearlessly Forward.