2018 Women in Biometrics Award winner: Lora Sims, Ideal Innovations
02 November, 2018
category: Biometrics, Corporate, Government
A winner of the 2018 Women in Biometrics Awards, Lora Sims once thought she’d be a science teacher. Instead, she is playing a very important role in the field of biometric security. She says, “I’m teaching a science … not in a traditional classroom, but that’s okay with me.”
As a Senior Biometric Examiner and biometrics instructor with Ideal Innovations, Inc. (I-3), Sims travels the world training intelligence analysts, police officers, and more. She was the main author of I-3’s facial identification training curriculum.
It’s a long way from her days as a helpdesk operator in 2007. “I was promoted in 2008 to be a tenprint examiner, and soon thereafter the system I worked on was upgraded to become a multi-modal system integrating face and iris biometrics to the fingerprint system,” she says. Today she mentors and trains new employees.
Among her biggest contributions to the biometrics industry, Sims counts her role in helping craft standards and best practices, especially the standard guide for the Facial Image Comparison Feature List.
Proudest accomplishment: becoming a certified tenprint examiner with the IAI, and also being chosen to lead two international committees – both the Organization of Scientific Area Committees Facial Identification Subcommittee and the Facial Identification Scientific Working Group
“That document is one of the most pivotal, if not the most pivotal document I believe for the facial identification discipline,” Sims says. “It lists all the features of the face that must be evaluated or compared when visible in both images or in an image and the face in front of you. It’s really the prime standard for what all examiners should be looking at when they’re doing comparisons.”
Sims’ proudest accomplishment:
“…Becoming a certified tenprint examiner with the IAI, the International Association for Identification, and also being chosen to lead two international committees – both the Organization of Scientific Area Committees Facial Identification Subcommittee and the Facial Identification Scientific Working Group. I’ve also had the opportunity to train others in biometrics, all three modalities – fingerprints, faces, and irises.”
Sims encourages anyone interested in biometrics not to be dissuaded by lack of education in the industry. “I don’t have a degree in forensics. I had no experience in forensics and in this field, and somebody took a chance on me,” Sims says. “Many people put a lot of time and effort into my career and my training to help develop me to where I am today to humbly accept this award.”
The 2018 Women in Biometrics Awards will be handed out in New York City on November 14th. The Security Industry Association will join SecureIDNews to present the awards during one of the security industry’s most prestigious events, SIA Honors Night.
