National Research Centers of Excellence

Academic excellence truly is the foundation of all research at Stevens.  Our research community has three National Research Centers of Excellence:

1. National Center for Secure and Resilient (CSR) Maritime Commerce
   
   
2. Department of Defense Systems Engineering Research University Affiliated Research Center
   
   
3. Atlantic Center for the Innovative Design & Control of Small Ships

National Center for Secure and Resilient (CSR) Maritime Commerce

On February 26, 2007, the US Department of Homeland Security announced the designation of Stevens Institute of Technology and the University of Hawaii as the co-leaders of  a new center responsible for conducting research and developing new ways to strengthen maritime domain awareness and safeguard populations and properties unique to U.S. islands, and remote and extreme environments. Stevens leads research and education for port security in its resulting Natioal Center for Secure and Resilient (CSR) Maritime Commerce. 

Academic excellence is the foundation of world-class research conributions.  Stevens designation by the US Department of Homeland Security as the lead research center for secure and resilient ports was no accident.  This award culminated decades of academic excellence in port and estuary sensing, modeling, and environment engineering innovation including passive isolated swimmer detection at long range and at low cost.  Located on the bank of the Hudson River directly opposite midtown Manhattan, New York City, Stevens is ideally situated and resoruced for continuing leadership in port operations, security and resilience.  The Port Security Research tab provides quick access to our research enterprise from this perspective. 

CSR is an example of an emerging global research theme that can be called cognitive or sentient spaces, where the unique mission, location, physical structure, fixed and wireless infrastructure, patterns of activity and most importantly "the people in and around the space" shape an integrated information environment that may be leveraged for greater convenience, efficiency, security, and/or resilience, depending on the needs of the space and the situation.  Other examples of cognitive spaces of research interest at Stevens include elder care facilities, farms, emergency response scenes, and medical facilites.

For more information, please visit the CSR web site!

Department of Defense Systems Engineering Research University Affiliated Research Center

Systems engineering is a multi-disciplinary practice that uses a holistic, systems approach to make sense of and manage the complexity of today's problems and solutions. It ensures that created systems meet the needs of the stakeholders and don't outrun our willingness to accept the risks associated with the benefits. In September 2008, the Department of Defense competitively awarded Stevens a contract to operate the Systems Engineering Research University Affiliated Research Center (SER-UARC). Housed within the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC), the mission of the SER-UARC is to enhance and enable the DoD's capability in Systems Engineering for the successful development, integration, testing and sustainability of complex defense systems, services and enterprises. The SER-UARC currently consists of 20 collaborating institutions led by Stevens, including the University of Southern California, Georgia Tech, Purdue, and 16 other institutions.

The SER-UARC focuses research to address four key challenges to DoD and the intelligence community: (1) respond more quickly, flexibly, agilely; (2) acquire, operate, and evolve large complex systems that have distributed and diffuse governance, architecture, and mission; (3) increase the pool and capabilities of systems engineers, and instill systems engineering thinking and skills into all engineers; and (4) address security challenges in a systemic fashion rather than piecemeal. In its short lifetime, the SER-UARC already has received more than $11 million in awards on more than 20 research projects and has partnerships with such varied sponsors as the Defense Acquisition University and the Army's Research, Development, and Engineering Command.

For more information, please visit the SER-UARC web site!

Atlantic Center for the Innovative Design & Control of Small Ships

There have been significant improvements in the process design function in today's shipbuilding industry. There has however been little focus on integrating, perhaps through radical design changes, all the engineering disciplines associated with shipbuilding. A major challenge in U.S. Navy ship design in the 21st Century is ensuring performance and affordability with a reduced crew size while also maintaining high reliability and damage control. This challenge is particularly evident in the design of vessels to meet the Navy's new and emerging needs in the littoral zone. These needs require fast, relatively small vessels capable of operating in the range of weather and ocean conditions encountered in the littoral environment while also meeting the Navy's payload requirements.

The Atlantic Center for the Innovative Design and Control of Small Ships is addressing this issue by focusing on two key areas. First is in establishing an environment where engineering disciplines associated with hull design and ship automation can be brought together within the context of the total ship system architecture, thereby facilitating the creative knowledge development, educational changes and discipline integration required for true innovation. Second is the utilization of this unique education and research environment in the recruiting, training and long-term career development of the best and brightest young engineers in the U.S.

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is the funding agency for a new and far-reaching naval research and engineering center. Located on Stevens campus, the Atlantic Center for the Innovative Design and Control of Small Ships involves an impressive consortium of co-investigators, including personnel from the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD.; University College, London, England; and the Lockheed Martin Corporation.

For more information, please visit the Atlantic Center web site!

CASSIA, Center for the Advancement of Secure Systems & Information Assurance

The mission of the center is to foster collaboration and act as a  catalyst for research, education, and entrepreneurship in information  assurance and cybersecurity.  Advances in the field require  conceptualizing, measuring, modeling, and countering a multitude of  rapidly evolving threats.  Crucial efforts to meet these challenges  include investigation of appropriate theoretical frameworks, novel  analysis of existing defense mechanisms, technical innovations,  development and deployment of commercial solutions, adoption of  suitable policies and standards, and education of systems  professionals, managers, policy-makers, and the general population. The center promotes a cohesive undertaking of the above endeavors to  maximize their effectiveness and impact.

The center is a nexus for:

• basic and applied research in secure, dependable, and sustainable computing and communications systems;
• exploration of the implications to information assurance and cybersecurity of ubiquitous computing and other visionary scenarios;
• anticipation of cultural evolution resulting from the inception of innovative technologies such as social networking;
• public-private partnerships for threat assessment, response, technology development and deployment;
• entrepreneurship and transfer of security and IA-related technology to the IT industry;
• education of professionals in security technologies, policy, and commerce;
• education of non-technical users: children, parents, teachers, small-business owners.

For more information, please visit the CASSIA web site!