Schools work together for U.S. security

Nuclear scientists, civil engineers and other University researchers are collaborating with counterparts at universities throughout New Jersey to aid in making the U.S. more secure against terrorist attacks.

Joining representatives from a half-dozen other institutions, a group of Univeristy faculty and staff participated in a statewide "Symposium on Homeland Security Research" at Rutgers University last Wednesday, which included panel discussions and progress reports on a wide range of research projects.

Many of those projects had been in development before Sept. 11, 2001, but took on greater urgency after the terrorist attacks, said Maria Gorlock, the civil and environmental engineering professor who organized the University's research presentation.

"A lot of these things were being done before 9/11, but that made it more critical in terms of 'we have to get this done now,'" she said. "It accelerated things."

The increased collaboration can be traced in part to an expectation that New Jersey universities will have a better chance of winning federal and state research grants if they work together, Gorlock said. A joint team of University and Rutgers engineers led by CEE professor Erik van Marcke had already applied for a grant in response to a request from the New Jersey Commerce and Economic Growth Commission.

The outcome of that application is pending approval of a bond issue next year.

Margaret Martonosi, a University electrical engineering professor, was among those who presented work at Rutgers last week. Her research on mobile sensors, used before Sept. 11 as a tool in tracking wildlife, has taken on new significance since then.

"Sensors are anything that measures something about the environment," Martonosi said. "That could mean measuring temperature, detecting gases in the air or capturing images at a particular location and then doing face recognition."

Martonosi said mobile sensors, particularly, were a potential boon to domestic security.

"Right now there are some sensors at entrances to the tunnels between New York and New Jersey, but they're fixed, which makes them vulnerable because people can find out where they are. The goal is to have them move — for example, by attaching them to police cars which are moving through the area anyway and getting a more fluid view."

Other Princeton researchers shared insights in a range of different areas. Lewis Meixler, head of applications research at the Plasma Physics Laboratory, presented on the Miniature Integrated Nuclear Detection System.

On behalf of van Marcke and architecture professor Guy Nordenson, CEE graduate student Mark Dobossy discussed the response of buildings with different structural designs to fire-induced collapses.

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In addition to the University's team, the symposium included researchers from Fairleigh Dickinson University, Monmouth University, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rutgers, the Stevens Institute of Technology and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Gorlock praised the pooling of research from different institutions. "Everybody has strengths in different areas, and it's important for everybody to share those strengths," she said.