10-08-04
BEHREND PARTNERS IN GREAT LAKES SURVEILLANCE RESEARCH
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Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, will partner in a research initiative to increase surveillance on the Great Lakes, as announced by the Center for eBusiness and Advanced Information Technology (eBizITPA) at a news conference today. Dr. Robert Gray, assistant professor of engineering technology and director of the Center for Communication, Navigation, and Information Systems, will oversee Penn State Erie's participation in the project.
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Through the efforts of Pennsylvania Senator Jane Earll, eBizITPA has received a $50,000 seed grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development to begin the first phase of the initiative, which could ultimately lead to an "information correlation center" in Erie that could serve as a data integration point for remote monitoring of surface movements on all parts of the Great Lakes.
"In the wake of 9/11, the U.S. and Canada have taken significant measures to further secure our borders," said Susan Breon, president of eBizITPA. "Although our Great Lakes borders remain a significant weak spot, this represents a manageable area for developing and testing advances in surveillance and information distribution systems and related shipping lane safety. We are attempting to combine regional expertise in technology and information systems with that of intelligence analysis to address this challenge and demonstrate a prime example of how we can potentially leverage our regional resources in important new ways."
In the first phase, Gray and his research team will demonstrate the potential for monitoring surface movement using commercially available radar sensor and tracking technology combined with existing or emerging information software, while gathering the larger scale system requirements and feasibility from relevant stakeholders such as the U.S. Coast Guard, Directorate of Border and Transportation Security, and regional emergency management agencies. Subsequent work would establish the feasibility of gathering relevant data and also developing an information center in this region.
Concurrently, Robert Heibel, director of the Mercyhurst College Institute for Intelligence Studies, and his research team, will identify key data requirements and capabilities to gather and disseminate information among relevant agencies. The results will enable the partners to define a project and propose a specific roadmap as well as identify public and private funding sources for additional research.
"If we can demonstrate both the concept and the capability to collaborate to perform this type of research, we believe we can attract federal funds to continue developing the project and potentially establish a center," said Breon. "We have talked with regional and national officials from several key departments who have expressed interest in the project as well as confidence in both Penn State and Mercyhurst expertise, and they have encouraged us to complete the initial concept test."
Sen. Earll said that she sees this as an opportunity for Erie to take advantage of an emerging regional logistics and information technology cluster. It is also an opportunity to show the benefits of collaboration with area colleges and universities, using them to impart specific knowledge and conduct research.
"I am quite happy to have obtained this grant," said Earll, "as I am confident in the abilities of the participants to deliver a quality product that may very well be used for national security purposes."
Contact: Loretta Brandon, 814-898-6063, lzb6@psu.edu