SSXC

School Safety

Xperience Competition

Develop an autonomous active threat detection and notification system for K-12 schools.

Sales Pitch

Teams pitch to a panel of judges for practice and feedback.

Prototype Demonstration

Teams show their prototypes in a real testing environment.

finals verification

Teams do something with their solution to make sure it works.

final pitch

Teams pitch their business plan and showcase their solution to a judging panel.

Winner announced

Winning team and investment announced at NEXPLORE 2040.

In November 2023, students gathered to decide our 2025 competition target and chose School Safety from our Society domain.

As a result, our inaugural competition is focused on developing an affordable and automated solution for rapid detection and notification of school shooting events for K-12 schools and colleges. This competition represents a unique opportunity for students to create a solution for a problem directly facing their fellow students.

Students advancing through our competition will receive support from our network of partners, including schools, government entities, and non-profits from across the country.

Topic

School Safety

Challenge

Develop a software-based active shooter threat assessment and response system

Domain

Society

Sales Pitch Recap

Watch the recap of the sales pitch milestone, where teams present their ideas, solutions, and prototypes to industry professionals. This video highlights the creativity, dedication, and collaboration that go into each project.

The critical need for school safety

The landscape of school safety has become an increasingly pressing concern, demanding innovative solutions and concerted efforts. Understanding the current challenges and the scale of the issue is crucial for informing effective strategies and fostering secure learning environments for all students.

+1,880

School shootings in the united states from 2015–present

$300 M

allocated by u.s congress to bolster school security

82%

of parents fear for their child's safety at school

Meet the teams

Find out more about the student teams working to protect our future generations.

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Knowing that there is a system in place in your school that would alert folks as soon as possible to mitigate harm would allow folks to feel a little bit better and a little bit more confident once they enter the classroom.

Kimberly Griffin, Ph.D.

Dean, College of Education at University of Maryland

It's so important for folks like you to step up just like you have and make sure that we make a difference.

Congressman Glenn Ivey, J.D.

Maryland's 4th Congressional District at U.S. House of Representatives

Just my team consists of people from engineering, people from computer science, people from biology and data science and psychology. We've got everything, and seeing how people tackle the same problem from different perspectives and different angles has just been an experience that I haven't gotten in any other class here.

Om Desai '26

B.S. Public Health Science at University of Maryland

xFoundry is really a wonderful opportunity for students to get involved and to feel that they actually can do something about the gun violence epidemic in our country. And that those solutions will make a difference in the world.

Susan Rivera, Ph.D.

Dean, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at University of Maryland

The combined forces of the interdisciplinarity of the teaching team and of the students is like bringing a really unique combination of different skills and ways of thinking all into a room together and getting them to really apply all these different ways of thinking in real time to the school safety grand challenge.

Christina Hnatov

Educator at Academy for Innovation & Entrepreneurship