President Raveche takes technology vision message to MSNBC

HOBOKEN, N.J. — Stevens Institute of Technology President Dr. Harold J. Raveche delivered an urgent message to the two major political parties last Saturday evening, speaking on the MSNBC news issues program, “Right Now.” Raveche’s message: Government must invest now in a far-reaching vision of science and technology based in the many developing and advanced homeland security applications that have emerged from private, government and university research partnerships.

He stressed that if the US is to remain number one in the high-tech arena, a major visionary commitment, such as was made with the Space Program or the Strategic Defense Initiative (‘Star Wars’), will be needed to insure that all players move together in a coherent, goal-oriented fashion to develop new and ultra-advanced technologies.

Raveche noted that both Senator Kerry and President Bush are ignoring the greater potential of homeland security technologies.

“We fail to see a national mandate,” he said, “to make the United States undisputedly the world leader in technology to protect our citizens. That means protecting our communications systems, our transportation systems, our harbors, and protecting our citizens against chemical, biological and nuclear attack.

“This needs to be a national mandate,” he continued, “cutting across all Federal departments.”

[To view a streaming video clip of Dr. Raveche’s appearance, please click here ]

Raveche discussed in some detail the need for secure wireless communications, pointing to the lessons of 9/11/01, when conflicting communications platforms led to a breakdown in effective response among police, fire and other emergency first responders.

He also focused on the issues of port and transportation security.

“Only about eight percent or less of all the shipping containers worldwide are inspected, and that creates a huge potential problem for us.

“If we do create this national mandate,” Raveche concluded, “we will see technologies that have commercial benefit, as we did with putting a man on the moon and with Star Wars.”

Stevens Institute of Technology is currently addressing a number of these technology issues through its various advanced research centers, including the Wireless Network Security Center (WiNSeC), the Center for Maritime Systems and the Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management.

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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