Joshua Fairley is good at math, a fact that is saving lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, said U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., in singling out the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employee in Vicksburg for praise.

Cochran honored Fairley, 35, for work as lead designer in improving detection of Improvised Explosive Devices, known as IEDs, by 75 percent.

“As a Mississippian, we’re proud of him,” Cochran said. “He has improved our capabilities to detect devices before they cause harm.”

IEDs are homemade bombs, stealth devices that have wounded, maimed or killed thousands of soldiers and civilians. They consist of explosive substances in casings filled with metals that become shrapnel when detonated remotely or with timers. Combatants sometimes bury them, but more often try to disguise them so they can be triggered as convoys or patrols pass nearby.

Fairley and his team created a set of numerical models to produce virtual images of an environment that differentiates between terrain, vegetation, people and IEDs.

The software can even detect the length of an object’s shadow, he said.

He said the team collected an array of factors from the field that have an effect on how heat signatures are perceived by sensors.

Understanding how moisture movement through the ground influences threat signatures enabled the team to develop automatic target recognition algorithms.

“We apply mathematical techniques over these synthetic images or the real images,” said Fairley.

The process finds the needle, or IED, in the haystack.

“Threats have an uncanny way of disguising themselves in their environment,” said Fairley.

He is primarily focused on sensor model development and ATRs that go with the sensors, specifically ground penetrating radar and synthetic aperture radar.

“The Engineer Research and Development Center does not develop sensors, but understands how they perceive things within the environment,” Fairley said. “That’s how we got into the game. ERDC got involved with its knowledge of soil, rocks and vegetation.”

Wayne Stroupe, Public Affairs spokesman, said 80 percent of the Corps’ work is supporting soldiers.

“They’re looking at the threats we face today and might face tomorrow,” he said.

Fairley said he feels he’s doing his part for his community.

“I wouldn’t be here unless I felt that way. I have to work on challenging and meaningful problems and conduct research,” he said.

About two years ago, Fairley developed a program that determines risk reduction measures needed to protect overseas military installations from terrorist attack.

In 2007, he received the Department of Defense David O. Cooke Excellence in Public Administration award for the Countermine Phenomenology, Joint Antiterrorism/Force Protection and Antiterrorist Barrier programs.

“As far as doing the work, it’s naturally exciting to me, and it’s exciting to the team I work with,” he said. “This is what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m excited for the opportunity of who it will benefit.”

Before moving to Vicksburg about seven years ago with his wife, Sandra, Fairley worked for the Earth Sciences and Remote Sensing Directorate at NASA.

The electrical engineering graduate of Mississippi State is a native of Petal. He plans to get his master’s in the same field later this summer.

ERDC, named the Army’s best research and development facility in 2008, is housed on a reserve off Halls Ferry Road. The complex was begun as Waterways Experiment Station 80 years ago with the initial mission of studying how to manage the Mississippi River for flood prevention and maintenance of navigation.

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Contact Tish Butts at tbutts@vicksburgpost.com