Under a program sponsored by the Department of Energy, the Oak Ridge complex is developed a ``Portal-of-the-Future``, or ``smart portal``. This is a security portal for vehicular traffic which is intended to quickly detect explosives, hidden passengers, etc. It uses several technologies, including microwaves, weigh-in-motion, digital image processing, and electroacoustic wavelet-based heartbeat detection. A novel component of particular interest is the Enclosed Space Detection System (ESDS), which detects the presence of persons hiding in a vehicle. The system operates by detecting the presence of a human ballistocardiographic signature. Each time the heart beats, it generates a small but measurable shock wave that propagates through the body. The wave, whose graph is called a ballistocardiogram, is the mechanical analog of the electrocardiogram, which is routinely used for medical diagnosis. The wave is, in turn, coupled to any surface or object with which the body is in contact. If the body is located in an enclosed space, this will result in a measurable deflection of the surface of the enclosure. Independent testing has shown ESDS to be highly reliable. The technologies used in the smart portal operate in real time and allow vehicles to be checked through the portal in much less …

The Ninth National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR 95) was held at Union College in Schenectady, New York. This annual celebration of undergraduate scholarly activity continues to elicit strong nation-wide support and enthusiasm among both students and faculty. Attendance was nearly 1,650, which included 1,213 student oral and poster presenters. For the second year in a row, many student papers had to be rejected for presentation at NCUR due to conference size limitations. Thus, submitted papers for presentation at NCUR 95 were put through a careful review process before acceptance. Those students who have been selected to have their paper appear in these Proceedings have been through yet a second review process. As a consequence, their work has been judged to represent an impressive level of achievement at the undergraduate level. Volume 1 contains papers related to Arts and Humanities (52 papers), and Social and Behavioral Sciences (64 papers).