Publications & Presentations

Noblis employees are passionate about our disciplines and it shows in our publications and presentations of research and thought leadership. We research, write, publish, share ideas and thought leadership and thrive on the application of our expertise. Our motivation is internal and mission-oriented; it stems from a desire to excel and realize results.

    Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning (AI/ML) and Advanced Analytics

    Nathaniel (Nat) J. Fuller, Ph.D., “The Intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cybersecurity. What Does This Really Mean?”, page 18, Fall 2024, Service Contractor Magazine.


    Justin Taylor, “Applying machine learning and statistical models to low-cost aerosol sensors for anomaly detection,” European Aerosol Conference, presentation and poster and DTRA Chemical and Biological Defense S&T Conference, presentation, 2024.


    Haley Townsend, PMP, SSM, data scientist at Noblis, with co-authors Cetin Mecit from Old Dominion University and Kaan Ozbay from New York University; published a 2024 NHCP research report: A roadmap for “Implementing Machine Learning at State Departments of Transportation.”


    Matthew Kersting and Ajay Patrikar, “Condition-based maintenance using unsupervised time-series anomaly detection“, presented at the Fleet Maintenance & Modernization Symposium, September 2023.


    Noblis, “Artificial Intelligence Field Guide for Public Sector Enterprises“, first edition, published in June 2023.

    Autonomous Systems

    Andrew Dudash, Ryan Rubel, Mohammad Goli, Nathan Clark; “Autonomous Soil Collection in Environments with Heterogeneous Terrain,” International Symposium of Robotics Research (ISRR), July 2024.


    Andrew Dudash and Scott James, “Multi-Agent Team Access Monitoring,” research poster presented at the 2023 International Symposium on Multi-Robot and Multi-Agent Systems, December 4-5, 2023, Boston University. View the poster PDF.


    Ryan Rubel, Nathan Clark, Andrew Dudash; “SurfaceAug: Closing the Gap in Multimodal Ground Truth Sampling,” submitted to the 2024 Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, preprint available on arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.03808.


    Ryan Rubel, Andrew Dudash, Mohammad Goli, James O’Hara, Karl Wunderlich; “Automated Multimodal Data Annotation via Calibration With Indoor Positioning System,” accepted to the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotic Computing, presented on December 12, 2023, preprint available on arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.03608.


    Contributor(s): National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Transportation Research Board; National Cooperative Highway Research Program; Meenakshy Vasudevan; James O’Hara; Haley Townsend; Sampson Asare; Syihan Muhammad; Kaan Ozbay; Di Yang; Jingqin Gao; Abdullah Kurkcu; Fan Zuo, “Algorithms to Convert Basic Safety Messages into Traffic Measures“, published in the National Cooperative Highway Research Program Annual Report, 2022.


    A. Hudak, S. James and R. Raheb; “Impact of Communication Path Loss to Unmanned Aircraft Swarm Coherency”, paper presented at ICNS Conference, April 20-22, 2021.


    Karl Wunderlich, Ph.D.; “Earned Trust, Priority And The Multi-Machine Maneuver Transaction”; presentation for the Mobility and Blockchain Initiative (MOBI) Innovation Lecture Series, November 2020.


    Karl Wunderlich, Ph.D., Andrew Dudash, David White, James O’Hara, Thomas Mitchell, “Pieces of 8 (Po8) Orchestrated Autonomy Concept: Robot Derby Demonstration”, presented in Munich, Germany as part of the MOBI Grand Challenge, sponsored by the MOBI (Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative) and TIoTA (Trusted IoT Alliance), February 15, 2019.

    Environmental Science

    Matt Spurlin, environmental scientist (Noblis); co-authored “Leveraging Hydrogeologic-Based Data—Reduce, Repurpose, Reimagine,” journal Groundwater Monitoring & Remediation, July 2024.


    Saif Sadeq, LEED AP, LFA, Principal, Sustainability & Building Performance, Noblis; “GSA tool can help green building professionals with decarbonization goals“, published on usgbc.org, August 2023.


    Dr. Mark Stapleton, Senior Environmental Remediation Engineer (Noblis); co-authored “Leveraging Sequence Stratigraphy to Accelerate Site Remediation: Pliocene Citronelle Formation, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, USA“, journal Groundwater Monitoring & Remediation, July 2023.


    Stapleton, JM. “Applications of Environmental Sequence Stratigraphy (ESS) to Remediation Design and Optimization,” presented at the Federal Remediation Technologies Roundtable Best Practices and Recent Technical Advances in Site Characterization and Conceptual Site Model Development at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Headquarters in Washington D.C., May 16, 2023.

    Forensic Science and Biometrics

    DNA mixture

    Latent print examination

    Evaluations of latent print examiners

    Latent print quality

    • Kalka ND, Beachler M, Hicklin RA. “LQMetric: A Latent Fingerprint Quality Metric for Predicting AFIS Performance and Assessing the Value of Latent Fingerprints.” Journal of Forensic Identification 70(4) 443-463, Oct 2020. (local download)
    • Kalka ND, Hicklin RA. “On relative distortion in fingerprint comparison.” Forensic Science International 244(2014), 78-84, Nov 2014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2014.08.007 (paid access; accepted manuscript)
    • Hicklin RA, Buscaglia J, Roberts MA. “Assessing the Clarity of Friction Ridge Impressions”; Forensic Science International 226(1-3):106-17; March 2013.   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2012.12.015 (paid access; accepted manuscript)
    • Hicklin RA, et al; “Latent Fingerprint Quality: A Survey of Examiners”; Journal of Forensic Identification 61(4), July 2011. (local download)

    Latent print casework metrics

    • Kiebuzinski GI, Hicklin RA, Taylor M. “Making a Case for Effective Latent Print Casework Metrics.” IDentification News, 47(2):12-13, Spring 2017. (local download)

    Latent print specifications

    • Chapman WJ, Hicklin RA, Kiebuzinski GI, Komarinski PD, Mayer-Splain J, Taylor M, Wallner R. “Latent Interoperability Transmission Specification”; NIST Special Publication 1152, January 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.1152 (open access)
    • Chapman WJ, Hicklin RA, Kiebuzinski GI, Komarinski PD, Mayer-Splain J, Taylor M, Wallner R. “Markup Instructions for Extended Friction Ridge Features”; NIST Special Publication 1151, January 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.1151 (open access)
    • Chapman WJ, Hicklin RA, Kiebuzinski GI, Komarinski PD, Mayer-Splain J, Taylor M, Wallner R. “Extended Feature Set Profile Specification”; NIST Special Publication 1134, January 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.1134 (open access)

    Latent print identification system evaluations

    • Indovina M, Dvornychenko V, Hicklin RA, Kiebuzinski GI. “ELFT‐EFS Evaluation of Latent Fingerprint Technologies: Extended Feature Sets, Evaluation #2.” NIST Interagency Report 7859, May 2012. https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.IR.7859 (open access)
    • Indovina M, Hicklin RA, Kiebuzinski GI; “ELFT‐EFS Evaluation of Latent Fingerprint Technologies: Extended Feature Sets, Evaluation #1”; NIST Interagency Report 7775, March 2011. https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.IR.7775 (open access)

    Firearms examination

    Footwear examination

    • Hicklin RA, McVicker BC, Parks C, LeMay J, Richetelli N, Smith M, Buscaglia J, Schwartz Perlman R, Peters EM, Eckenrode BA. “Accuracy, Reproducibility, and Repeatability of Forensic Footwear Examiner Decisions.” Forensic Science International, 339(111418), 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2022.111418 (paid access; local download)
    • McVicker BC, Parks C, LeMay J, Eckenrode BA, Hicklin RA. “A Method for Characterizing Questioned Footwear Impression Quality.” Journal of Forensic Identification 71 (3), 2021, 205-216. (local download)

    Handwriting examination

    • Hicklin RA, Eisenhart L, Richetelli N, Belcastro P, Burkes TM, Smith M, Buscaglia J, Perlman RS, Peters EM. (2022) “Reply to Kukucka: Calculating error rates in forensic handwriting examiner decisions.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(52), e2217508119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2217508119 (open access)
    • Hicklin RA, Eisenhart L, Richetelli N, Miller MD, Belcastro P, Burkes TM, Parks C, Smith M, Buscaglia J, Peters EM, Perlman RS, Abonamah JV, Eckenrode BA. “Accuracy and Reliability of Forensic Handwriting Comparisons.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119 (32) e2119944119, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2119944119 (open access)

    Tire examination

    • Richetelli N, LeMay J, Dunagan KM, Parks CL, Hicklin RA, Chapman WJ (2024). “Accuracy and Reproducibility of Forensic Tire Examination Decisions.” Forensic Science International, 358(1112009). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2024.112009 (paid access)

    Bloodstain pattern analysis

    • Hicklin RA, Winer KR, Kish PE, Parks CL, Chapman W, Dunagan K, Richetelli N, Epstein EG, Ausdemore MA, Busey TA. “Accuracy and Reproducibility of Conclusions by Forensic Bloodstain Pattern Analysts” Forensic Science International 2021, 110856, ISSN 0379-0738. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2021.110856 (open access)
    • Noblis, “Bloodstain Pattern Analysis Black Box Study Dataset”. OSF, 2020. https://doi.org/10.17605/osf.io/2ckhw (open access)

    Forensic science (general)

    • Chapman WJ, Hicklin RA, Taylor M. “Beginners Guide to Biometric and Forensic Science Human Subjects Research Protections.” NIST Special Publication 1289, January 2023. https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.1289 (open access)
    • Hicklin RA, Kiebuzinski GI, Taylor M. “Best practices in the collection and use of biometric and forensic datasets.” NIST Interagency Report 8361, March 2021. https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.IR.8361 (open access)

    Facial recognition

    Iris recognition

    Life Sciences

    Shanna Ratnesar-Shumate, Ph.D. and Justin Taylor, Ph.D. Noblis; “Aerosol Science of Infectious Diseases: What We Learned and What We Still Need to Know Based on Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic“, poster presented at the 24th Congress of the International Society for Aerosols in Medicine (ISAM), October 2-6, 2023.


    Daniel Antonio Negrón, Nicholas Tolli, Stephanie Guertin, Suzanne Wollen-Roberts, Shane Mitchell, Jared Haas, Katharine Jennings, Bradley Abramson, Lauren Brinkac, David Ashford. “Clade-Specific MPXV PCR Assays“, published on bioRxiv, August 2023.


    Older publications, presentations, posters and case studies related to Noblis’ life sciences work and research can be found on bioportal.noblis.org.