Virtual Engineering Center established at Stevens in partnership with EON Reality Inc.

HOBOKEN, N.J. - Stevens Institute of Technology has announced a partnership between its Design & Manufacturing Institute (DMI) and EON Reality Inc.'s Homeland Defense Center (HDC) as part of an initiative to improve homeland security.

The EON HDC initiative is a nation-wide network of training and research centers established to address various aspects of homeland security and Defense, from physical terrorism to border security, bio terrorism to intelligence. The centers enable US government agencies, including federal, state and local agencies, to efficiently develop, educate, and train appropriate personnel in all phases of homeland security including detection, preparation, prevention, protection, response and recovery.

The Virtual Engineering Center at Stevens is to be created to promote the use of Virtual Reality (VR) and Visualization technologies for solutions of complex and data intensive engineering problems. This Center will be an Institute-wide asset managed by the Design & Manufacturing Institute (DMI) at Stevens. Its mission will be to investigate the application of VR in problems related to:

o Homeland Security and Defense (HSD) Research and Training for Protecting the Metropolitan Region
o Product Realization and Manufacturing Simulation for Defense and Commercial Applications

The center is envisioned to be equipped with the latest high-end VR systems and software through a major grant provided by EON Reality, Inc. to DMI. This capability will allow the ability to demonstrate, interactively practice and evaluate new innovative VR solutions in different areas of engineering. DMI is teaming with EON Reality, the leading interactive visual content management software provider worldwide to facilitate the center.

The overall goals of this initiative are:

• To facilitate creation of scalable and useful VR and visualization solutions for complex and data intensive engineering problems
• To support VR education and application development
• To assist in securing funding for the Center's research and development resources and infrastructure
• To create Industrial partnerships by collaborating with commercial companies and the Government agencies

"One important aspect of the center is to provide VR based Training for Protecting the Metropolitan Region," said Souran Manoochehri Director of DMI at Stevens. "This includes a comprehensive modeling and simulation capability to visually demonstrate, interactively practice and evaluate specific national security threat scenarios. Other application areas include Product Realization and Manufacturing Simulation for Defense and Commercial Applications, Harbor Security and Maritime Systems, Cyber Security, Systems Design and Operational Effectiveness Program and Environmental Systems."

"This partnership adds a very important component to our ongoing efforts within Homeland Security,"' said Mats W. Johansson, President of EON Reality. "Bringing together the expertise of Stevens in defense and manufacturing with EON's scalable software and seamlessly integrated display solutions will provide an effective resource for research and training. First responders can learn how to move/operate safely and quickly and make faster, more informed decisions. We believe that this approach provides a very cost-effective method of deploying Homeland Security training as it reduces field exercise time, increases retention rate and even provide self study capabilities."

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.

Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,150 undergraduate and 3,500 graduate students, with about 250 full-time faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.  

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