|
|
New Jersey Institute of Technology Vice President Advocates Homeland Security
Plan Using Cutting Edge Technologies
NEWARK, August 19- The rescue response to the World Trade Center attack revealed a breakdown of
communications at all levels of the security and response communities. There is thus no better place for
technologists to weigh in than in managing and bringing information technologies to the people who manage
emergency response teams, intelligence gathering, and planning and training of response and rescue teams.
A new Homeland Security Technology Center at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) has forged an important
partnership - a partnership that will bring advanced information technology to first response teams. The
technology could help defend against bio-terrorism, secure our borders, and protect critical infrastructure
such as power systems, bridges and airports.
NJIT has formed the partnership with two software makers -- International Analytics, developer of CRISIS, and
NCI, developer of Event Broker - as well as with New Jersey Network News, the state's public broadcasting
network and emergency response carrier. The three aim to apply modeling and simulation systems that will
support the state's homeland security.
"The same software that aids in planning and training for a wide range of natural and man-made disasters can
quickly become a virtual emergency command console, aiding a coordinated response from municipal first
responders, while supporting strategic decisions in real time from state and federal agencies," says Donald H.
Sebastian, Ph.D. Sebastian, the spokesman for the new NJIT center, is vice president for research and
development at NJIT.
The software systems use Global Information Systems (GIS)-based information to support simulations used to
coordinate a response to a disaster. People who would benefit from these simulations include members of
emergency response teams, hospital workers, public and private transportation administrators and others.
The software gives New Jersey a system to prepare for anything from a natural disaster to a chemical,
biological or radiological attack.
International Analytics already counts other states in its customer base, and is testing its software with the
U.S. Coast Guard, FEMA, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. NJIT can provide the state with the physical
infrastructure to support the software, the labor force to drive the simulation, and manage the training for
planners and responders, Sebastian says.
To prepare for this responsibility, NJIT has agreements with key groups that comprise the New Jersey's homeland
security team. Those efforts include the following:
- Picatinny Arsenal and NJIT have been collaborating on a port security initiative, biometric and
sensor-based detection systems, weapons, energetics and material logistics. Fort Monmouth and NJIT have
joined forces for communications projects and sensor based security systems for infrastructure defense,
command, control and first responder support.
- The National Guard and NJIT have collaborated on advanced, simulation based training and performance
aids, and are currently pursuing an initiative to be a partner in the Department of Military and Veterans
Affairs center of excellence for command and control.
NJIT has supported the NJ Department of Health and Senior Services as developer of a number of custom software
systems for public health monitoring and emergency alert. It is working with the federal Center for Disease
Control and the New Jersey Department of Health and Human Services to develop bio-terrorism identification and
reporting tools linking doctors, hospitals and clinical laboratories. NJIT is working with the New Jersey
State Police and Office of Emergency Management to apply distance-learning technology to the special needs of
first responders.
- NJIT is home to several US Department of Transportation centers of excellence with the tools and
technologies to support the wide range of issues ranging from airport management to evacuation planning and
implementation.
"The challenges facing New Jersey are complex and interconnected and need to be considered in the totality of a
single system rather than isolated domains," says Sebastian. "NJIT, a technological research university, can
play a pivotal role in creating a single system. We have the physical, human and intellectual resources to
embrace high technology tools to empower next generation solutions to enduring problems."
NJIT is a public, scientific and technological research university enrolling
more than 8,800 students. The university offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees to students
in 80 degree programs throughout its six colleges: Newark College of Engineering, New Jersey School
of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, School of Management, Albert Dorman Honors
College and College of Computing Sciences. The division of continuing professional education offers
adults eLearning, off campus degrees and short courses. Expertise and research initiatives include
architecture and building science, applied mathematics, biomedical engineering, environmental
engineering and science, information technology, manufacturing, materials, microelectronics,
multimedia, telecommunications, transportation and solar astrophysics. Yahoo! Internet
Life magazine cites NJIT as a "perennially most wired" university.
|
|
|
