{"id":299,"date":"2017-09-26T13:55:16","date_gmt":"2017-09-26T20:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/csi\/?page_id=299"},"modified":"2026-07-09T10:47:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T17:47:43","slug":"mission-and-purpose","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/csi\/mission-and-purpose\/","title":{"rendered":"Mission and Purpose"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mission<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The Complex Social Interactions (CSI) Lab researches and develops technology to improve how public safety agencies analyze and learn from operational data. Our primary goal is to lower the barrier to entry for smaller and mid-sized agencies, ensuring they have the technical capability to evaluate their own performance and policy outcomes on a par with larger organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A central component of our work is our commitment to experiential learning and workforce development. Each semester, our lab integrates a cohort of approximately 50 students into our research projects, providing them with hands-on experience in a variety of skills including software development and the analysis of complex datasets, primarily body-worn camera footage. To date, we have mentored over 450 students, preparing the next generation of researchers and practitioners to tackle the challenges of modern public safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our research is defined by three specific functions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Support for Professional Development\n<ul>\n<li>We build diagnostic tools that allow agencies to measure the effectiveness of their training programs and internal protocols. By providing clear, empirical feedback, we help departments foster informed decision-making among their personnel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Open-Source Technical Development\n<ul>\n<li>We prioritize developing open-source software to ensure our tools are transparent, peer-reviewed, and adaptable. This approach enables agencies to maintain control over their technical infrastructure and remain responsive to evolving data collection requirements.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Operational Analysis for Professional and Community Wellness\n<ul>\n<li>We design methods for processing audio, visual, and biometric data to help agencies understand the complexities of daily operational demands. By analyzing patterns within these interactions, we provide organizations with the insight necessary to proactively support employee health and wellness. Our focus is on identifying the stressors and environmental challenges inherent in public safety work, allowing agencies to refine their support structures and foster sustainable, long-term professional success.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The CSI Lab is committed to creating research-driven tools that help public safety organizations learn from their interactions, invest in their personnel, and increase their capacity for self-improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Purpose<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The greater purpose of the Complex Social Interactions (CSI) Lab is to provide public safety agencies with technology that will help increase their supervisorial capacity, thus addressing one of the most pressing issues in 21<sup>st<\/sup>&nbsp;century policing and beyond. The CSI Lab will develop new software that has real-world applications to aid public safety agencies when seeking to improve their organization while evolving individual level decision-making. By surveying the measurement and tracing of data series within specific networks in audio, visual, and biometric recordings, our technology will help agencies not only validate reports, but identify other unreported altercations and incidents that may need reevaluation. CSI technology will help validate the success of interventions, including training, policies, and protocols.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Progress Towards Fulfillment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Centered on actionable work and transparency, the links below are summaries of the progress we have made towards the above mission and purpose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-labs\/uploads\/sites\/1517\/2026\/07\/Year-End-Summary-2025-2026.pdf\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-labs\/uploads\/sites\/1517\/2026\/07\/Year-End-Summary-2025-2026.pdf\">2025-2026 Year-End Summary<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-labs\/uploads\/sites\/1517\/2026\/07\/Year-End-Summary-2024-2025.pdf\">2024-2025 Year-End Summary<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mission The Complex Social Interactions (CSI) Lab researches and develops technology to improve how public safety agencies analyze and learn from operational data. Our primary goal is to lower the barrier to entry for smaller and mid-sized agencies, ensuring they have the technical capability to evaluate their own performance and policy outcomes on a par [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5478,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_wsuwp_accessibility_report":null},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"wsuwp_university_location":[],"wsuwp_university_org":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/csi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/299"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/csi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/csi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/csi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5478"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/csi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/csi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1436,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/csi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/299\/revisions\/1436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/csi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/csi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/csi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/csi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=299"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/csi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}