The cumulative multi-disciplinary approach is important as the researchers and students must understand social and political implications of new technologies, deal with privacy issues, and observe moral and ethical standards. Even though several universities are engaged in security-related teaching and research activities, Security Engineering is a unique approach that will prove to be a catalyst for UTA to enhance its eminence in Texas and to provide a broader geographical distribution of trained security professionals. IRIS complements and leverages upon three other research centers at UTA: The Automation & Robotics Research Institute (ARRI), the NanoFab Center for sensor development, and the Center for Psychological Science, Law, and Security. Several joint projects with these research centers are being pursued or planned. .

The research at IRIS will create new knowledge as well as engineer and integrate technologies that will provide police and other law enforcement officials with new means and capabilities to fight crime and to protect the homeland, its borders, and other security sensitive perimeters and infrastructures. The new knowledge and concepts would also give the US an advantage in fighting terrorism and in detecting threats. Using both evolutionary and revolutionary approaches, IRIS will integrate solutions from various disciplines and fill the gap in the state-of-the-art technology.

The Security Engineering program will advance research in several areas, such as audio and video processing, sensor design and fusion, biometric computing, pervasive computing, networking, databases, data mining, crime analysis, and human behavior. Several new areas of research, such as software and hardware based ubiquitous tools for security applications, management and interoperability of large amounts of audio-visual data, extraction of critical information from the data, and discovery of complex relationships among the data entities. The multi-disciplinary and hybrid approach that includes experts from psychology and criminology adds a new dimension to the traditional computer science and engineering research. The hybrid approach is also important for designing policies, incorporating laws dealing with privacy issues, ensuring ethical standards, and accounting for the social implications and societal impact of new technologies and applications. Some of these applications include;

A unique aspect of IRIS is the active participation of law enforcement agencies in its research programs. IRIS has forged partnerships with several agencies to seek their feedback, cooperation, and advance technical knowledge through joint research and education. Established a year and half ago, IRIS spans several departments at UTA and includes outside partners. Our alliance with the Arlington Police Department (APD) has a track record of the on-going success of several joint research projects through funding obtained from federal government. Several police departments, police training agencies, fire brigades, and other security departments in the North Texas area including, the Dallas Police Department, have expressed their support for IRIS. Service to the community and contributions to national interests are always prime goals of a research university, and these partnerships will provide ample opportunities for IRIS and UTA to serve the community, identify real-world needs, and adjust its research accordingly.

IRIS also aims to initiative, innovative teaching programs. Through several research grants from NSF, DOJ, and other sources, the IRIS lab now has the basic infrastructure to carry out research in pervasive networking, audio-visual devices, and a variety of sensors. Several proposals have been submitted to government agencies to start a new graduate program in Security Engineering. Inspite of the fact, that security is recognized to be a high impact area, no such program exists in the nation. Security engineering could possibly become a new branch of engineering, with UTA serving as a national model for teaching and a catalyst to enhance its eminence in Texas. The graduates of this program will be able to create new technical and social tools in the war against terrorists and criminals through the combination of technology, law and the complementary social sciences. At the same time, it will feed new talent, educated in the latest advances in security technology, to law enforcement and intelligence agencies, such as, police, FBI, CIA.