OMAHA, Nebraska (September 20, 2024)—A counter-terrorism innovation developed at the University of Nebraska at Omaha secured a United States patent and landed in a recent KETV-ABC broadcast along the way.

The innovation is a chatbot developed by lead-inventors Joel Elson, PhD, and Erin Kearns, PhD—both researchers at UNO’s National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center, or NCITE for short.

The technology, ReportBot, is an interactive chat feature that will give people an avenue for reporting suspicious activities. If all goes according to plan, it could live as an app on a smartphone or tablet, or even a hologram in virtual reality applications.

UNeMed, the technology transfer and commercialization office for UNO, worked with a local patent attorney to secure the patent, and further supported NCITE’s participation in a 16-week entrepreneurial match-making program. The chatbot technology attracted the interest of a serial entrepreneur who is currently building a new startup company around the innovation.

KETV’s full report can be viewed here: https://www.ketv.com/article/omaha-ncite-receives-patent-for-chat-bot-technology/62268580