Stevens research team tackles homeland security issues

HOBOKEN, N.J. - Can finding ways to create coordination among the complex entities who deal with the Port of New York and New Jersey yield applicable homeland security lessons for everyone? Researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology think so, as they begin work this month to develop "network-centric" approaches to security for the 10th largest port in the world.

In November, Stevens' Howe School of Technology Management Dean Jerry MacArthur Hultin and 10 Stevens faculty joined with top officials who have direct interests in port security for a workshop, "Network-Centric Operations Applied to the Campaign Against Terrorism: Port Security in the Port of New York and New Jersey."

The workshop was designed to begin identifying research topics aimed at developing a common framework for coordinating public and private resources and communications in the event of potential terrorist threats or attacks in the port. The research team hopes that network-centric approaches revealed by the study will also apply to security challenges nationwide.

Stevens has received a $150,000 private grant to conduct the study, which is considered critical to addressing homeland security concerns. The project uses port security as a case study to explore how network-based ("network-centric") management concepts can be applied to significantly improve communications and coordination among organizations directly involved with security and crisis response. Because these organizations form a complex network, often with overlapping jurisdictions, finding ways to make coordination effective is considered key to dealing with the challenges of the post-9/11 world.

At the workshop, Hultin and faculty from all three schools at Stevens (technology management, engineering, and sciences and arts) collected input from officials in a variety of organizations: the public safety offices of New York and New Jersey, the Center for Technology and National Security Policy, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Naval Network Warfare Command, Con Edison, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Business Executives for National Security, and major private companies with interests in port security, including Wallenius Lines Holding Inc., Lansdell Protective Agency Inc., Telcordia, Bracewell and Patterson LLP, and Alidade Consulting.

"I'm excited by the fact that this project has captured the intense interest of these principal players in port security," said Dr. Michael Pennotti, Industry Professor of Systems Engineering at Stevens and, with Hultin, co-principal investigator for the study.

"By participating, they have acknowledged the importance of joining with us to tell us exactly what is needed to make network-centric operations possible," Pennotti added.

Pennotti set the tone for the first workshop with a thorough overview of the challenges to port security in the Port of New York and New Jersey. He emphasized risk factors and economic impact, noting that the cost to the US economy, if a terrorist incident were to occur at the port, has been estimated to be approximately $58 billion. He also emphasized the low probability of identifying individual threat scenarios, a factor that necessitates vulnerability-based, rather than threat-based, planning.

The workshop involved the participants in sessions to explore how organizations might work together to look at the challenges to making that happen. The outcome of the first workshop was a list of possible research topics from which research teams will develop abstracts for consideration and feedback from the participants. The abstracts will lead to the development of meaningful research projects, which the teams plan to complete by March 2004. Then, a second workshop will be held to present research findings and determine conclusions and further work. By May 2004, the research teams plan to write and publish a monograph that will share the conclusions of the research.

Besides Hultin and Pennotti, who are the project's principal investigators, project leaders include the following from Stevens: Dr. Rashmi Jain, Professor, Systems Engineering and Engineering Management, as investigator; Dr. Harlan Ullman, Distinguished Visiting Scholar, technology management, as senior consultant; and Ms. Leslie Stevens, Program Director, Center for Global Technology Management, as study director.

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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