21st Century AEYE - Pilot Partnership With Charter Schools

Security technology company 21st Century AEYE has announced that Golden Rule Charter School will be the first to gain access to its AI security breakthrough under a recently signed partnership.

Austin, Texas--(Newsfile Corp. - May 25, 2023) - This new partnership will bring the 21st Century A|EYE autonomously-driven threat detection platform to the school's campus. The Golden Rule Charter School was chosen as the first school to model the school security system because of their status as a National Blue Ribbon School serving primarily minority students and members of socio-economically disadvantaged communities.

21st Century A|EYE's recently announced partnership will bring the company's next-generation AI monitoring system into the campus' security ecosystem, which will provide the school's security team with a suite of powerful new security tools. The 21st Century A|EYE platform functions autonomously through the use of AI threat detection and in tandem with human alerting via a supplementary 21st Century A|EYE app, available to students, teachers, and staff, to facilitate the safest learning environment possible.

This partnership received the backing of education pioneer Julie Pickren from the Texas State Board of Education. Member Pickren stated, "Texas has experienced too many tragedies which have cost us children's and teachers' lives. My district has experienced this first-hand with the Santa Fe school shooting. Texas is taking action now to keep our children safe."

Superintendent Dr. Vicente Delgado added, "with this new AI technology, we believe Golden Rule will become a beacon that other districts and charters will soon follow. The protection of children's lives is paramount, and the partnership understands the importance of taking action to help prevent the next tragedy from occurring."

In celebration of this partnership, Golden Rule Charter School's IT Department, security team, faculty members, and members of the Dallas SWAT team were shown and collectively impressed by the video demonstrations of the AI technology in use, which displayed the software's proprietary detection and prevention mechanisms. Individuals present at this demonstration were hopeful the new technology will help avert future school shootings.

"Every year, parents pray, and politicians promise a solution. We are offering 21st-century solutions to a 21st-century problem. Today, we are proud to stand together, solutions in hand, in protecting the sanctity of children and youth from becoming the headline of the next national tragedy," states founder Said Bilani.

"Anytime you develop something that can be a proactive instead of a reactive solution or preventative measure to a problem such as school shootings, anyone in state education or local education, from superintendents to elected officials, are most likely going to give you an ear to be able to show that you can help save lives in their district," said company co-founder, Brannon Castleberry.

The new 21st Century A|EYE platform integrates with a given CCTV system and employs Artificial Intelligence technology to detect, locate, and alert in real-time. If the automatic detection system recognizes a weapon, 21st Century A|EYE will discern the threat, geo-locate the position, and issue an alert to the proper authorities.

If a threat is detected, first responders (both on-site and local authorities) will receive a real-time alert. The system is intended to be a cost-effective solution to a systemic problem, seamlessly integrating into pre-existing CCTV camera infrastructure and autonomously detecting, locating, and alerting for active shooters. This fully integrated AI platform works 24 hours, 7 days a week, and is not dependent on human monitoring.

21st Century A|EYE is the innovation of innovator, Said Bilani, who built the weapons defense and detection platform while at Harvard University, and business partner, Brannon Castleberry, both of whom have collectively provided strategic security consulting services to political and private entities across the country, and who hold extensive governmental affairs and political influence, domestically and internationally. This partnership with Golden Rule represents the culmination of years of experience and an ongoing commitment to public safety on the part of the company.

21st Century AEYE has announced the release of an enhanced platform designed to provide a tech-enabled response system in the event of an active school shooting incident.

This move is a response to the prevalence of school shootings in the country, which has already numbered 17 thus far in 2023. According to company representatives, this system serves as a life-saving backup plan should current deterrents fail and a perpetrator breaches the premises.

The platform is integrated into a school’s CCTV system and uses advanced artificial intelligence-powered technologies to detect wielded weapons. When an armament is spotted by the algorithm, an alert will be automatically pushed out to administrators and first responders.

More importantly, the platform can pinpoint the location of an active shooter and relay it to authorities. Knowing the coordinates of the perpetrator enables police officers to better plan their course of action, which can minimize injuries and casualties.

Additionally, schools can lock down the premises while triangulating the shooter's location, ensuring that accomplices cannot gain entry and wreak more havoc. A companion app allows users to access notifications and activate lock-down protocols remotely, which is crucial at the outset of a suspected school shooting.

A CONTINUING PROBLEM

Gun-related violence in schools has affected roughly 350,000 students since 1999, when the Columbine incident occurred. The relative ease of procuring firearms in the country has only exacerbated the problem, which means schools must employ additional measures to prevent such attacks and avoid the loss of lives.

As such, 21st Century AEYE offers a cost-effective solution that gives clients additional peace of mind. A spokesperson says: "We are committed to providing schools with the most advanced security technology available. Our platform leverages the latest developments in artificial intelligence to facilitate rapid response times, keeping students and faculty members safe should an active shooting incident happen."

ABOUT 21st CENTURY AEYE

The company's mission is to create a world free from the fear of school shootings by strengthening the resilience of schools against such incidents. With an apolitical and practical approach, 21st Century AEYE leverages the power of AI and machine learning to mitigate the damage a perpetrator might cause.

 A new school security technology was spotlighted during a press conference at Golden Rule Charter Schools’ (GRCS) DeSoto campus on Friday.

Texas-based machine-learning startup 21st Century AIEye partnered with GRCS to deploy its school security technology at the campus, which uses artificial intelligence to scan for guns using the school’s existing video surveillance infrastructure.

“It’s a forward-looking apolitically-pragmatic solution to overcoming school shootings,” said company co-founder Said Bilani.

He explained to an audience of students and administrators that the security system could detect firearms when they become visible on school security cameras. The system can then alert personnel and first responders of the danger as well as keep students and staff notified of a potential shooter’s location in real time through an app.

“We’re hoping the partnership … will help prevent that next tragedy from occurring in our school systems,” said Assistant Superintendent Ernie Amaton. “What I hope for and that I pray for is that [other] schools will soon follow Golden Rule Charter Schools as a beacon of implementing this technology and saving the lives of their kids as well.”

State Board of Education Member Julie Pickren (District 7) was also in attendance. She asked Bilani if the technology could be adapted to detect other kinds of weapons or e-cigarette vape pens. Bilani responded in the affirmative, noting that the company was working on such functionality.

“We can custom fit our programming to match your needs, whether it’s vapes, whether it’s knives … But right now, what we’re starting is with the root cause of tragedy in our country, that’s school shooters, and we wanted to do that with a common sense solution … that doesn’t infringe on Second Amendment rights,” Bilani said.

The Dallas Express asked Pickren how she became involved in GRCS’ adoption of the new security technology.

“[The founders] contacted me and asked if there was a school in Texas that I thought would be a good pilot school for this program,” said Pickren. “Because of all the wonderful things that Golden Rule Charter is doing, they were at the top of my list.”

She told The Dallas Express that 21st Century A|Eye donated their software to the DeSoto campus at no cost to GRCS and that her emotional investment in the partnership stems from her time as a trustee on the Alvin Independent School District’s school board. In 2018, just a few miles from Alvin, a school shooting at Santa Fe High School left 10 people dead.

“Anytime you develop something that can be a proactive instead of a reactive solution or preventative measure to a problem such as school shootings, anyone in state education or local education, from superintendents to elected officials, is most likely going to give you an ear to be able to show that you can help save lives in their district,” said company co-founder Brannon Castleberry, speaking with The Dallas Express.

GRCS is not the only school system in North Texas to turn to technology to better secure its campuses against potential school shooters. As previously reported in The Dallas Express, Pilot Point Independent School District recently deployed a new emergency evacuation system that can track a school shooter inside campus buildings and redirect students and staff away from the shooter’s location.

The Dallas Express asked Bilani if his company’s technology could scale up and be deployed at big school districts like the Dallas Independent School District, which has had a number of security incedents in recent years involving firearms.

“It all just depends on having [the right] servers and cameras,” he said.