Risk modeling to detect weapon production in biological laboratories

Abstract

The 2001 United States anthrax attacks raise issues regarding U.S. national security. These attacks bring into question the risk of biological laboratory misuse. This capstone project developed a model that determines whether a given facility could be involved in the production of a biological weapon. The proposed model centers around five laboratory factors that comprehensively evaluate a laboratory and provide insight concerning potential resource exploitation. These factors include materials in the lab, equipment in the lab, electricity usage, abnormal contents in wastewater, and background of laboratory personnel. Each of these factors has an individual model that detects suspicious behavior. A final model combines the results of the individual models above to produce an overall evaluation of the laboratory's threat level.