3D-Printed Model Of Hard Rock Stadium Helps Miami-Dade Police Prepare For Super Bowl 54
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Security surrounding Super Bowl 54 is extremely tight, but Miami-Dade Police have gone high-tech in their security training by using a highly detailed 3D-printed model of Hard Rock Stadium, created by FIU students.
"Law enforcement has never done something like this before for a Super Bowl. This is a first for us, and the students at FIU are the ones who made it happen," said Major Edgardo Caneva, who oversees the Miami-Dade Police Department's Special Patrol Bureau and is the Super Bowl Operations Commander.
Students from the college's Robotics and Digital Fabrication Lab designed and created the model.
The four-by-five-foot model shows bleachers, hallways, exits, rooms, and even support beams to-scale. It can be separated into sliding cross-sections for closer examination.
It took months of examining digital diagrams, walking through foot traffic flow, fine-tuning the lab's 3D-printers, and over 3,500 hours of printing to create this level of detail. It is accurate down to the millimeter.
Officers from the Special Patrol Bureau, which includes the Special Response Team and the Rapid Deployment Force, have been using the model for months to get to know the 65,000-seat stadium for tactical planning and training in and around the stadium.
The department has been using the model since mid-November to conduct tabletop strategy sessions and trainings. Using the model has saved the department time traveling to and from the stadium, and allowed more face-to-face communication among the team. The Special Patrol Bureau will also use the model for future events.
The FIU Police Department funded the project per a request for mutual aid from MDPD, said FIU Police Chief Alexander Casas.
"All of South Florida's law enforcement have strong relationships and are very collaborative," Casas said. "Miami-Dade Police have helped us out a lot, so I couldn't say yes fast enough."
In the future, the lab hopes to collaborate in different ways with FIUPD, MDPD, and other police agencies using augmented reality, virtual reality, and intelligent lighting.