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A
Feast for Futurists
Showcasing
the work of 25 scientific teams, the research summit of
Virginia's Institute for Defense and Homeland
Security created a model for promoting
R&D and economic development.
We
are trying to make decisions without using all the
information that exists,” Dr. Michael
Denton
of
James
Madison
University
and Dr. Mark
Kirk of the University of Virginia told
participants in the inaugural research summit of
Virginia’s Institute for Defense and Homeland
Security (IDHS).
“[Our]
decision-support system will make responses easier
by integrating federal and local data with
analysis tools,” the collaborators continued.
“We’re looking to build a seamless environment
for decision-makers in the health, law
enforcement, emergency response and fire
sectors.”
The
two researchers were assessing risks and responses
specific to toxic spills or chemical attacks in
the “Risk Management” track of the summit,
held June 25 at the Ronald Reagan Building and
International Center in Washington, D.C. Other
tracks, all with implications for defense and
homeland security, included “Biodefense,”
“Sensors” and “Telecommunications.”
Dr.
Jason Merrick of Virginia
Commonwealth
University and Dr. Jack Harrold of the George
Washington University, for example, suggested
their dynamic simulation of port safety and
security could create geographic profiles of
security and safety risks -- and, by showing
potential impacts on the economic of port
operations, better guide remediation and security
efforts.
“We
are retrofitting security onto complex systems
everywhere, not just the Internet,” Dr. Harrold
concluded.
Even
as presenters outlined benefits of their specific
projects on defense and homeland security, they
highlighted the depth and rapid pace of change
facing society, enterprise and state government
across the board.
“A
broad public-safety objective demands a systems
approach,” Dr. Saifur Rahman of Virginia
Tech’s Alexandria Research Institute suggested,
“because our individual infrastructures have
evolved largely without consideration for
interoperability and interdependence.” Dr.
Rahman has been developing a model for critical
infrastructure assessment, protection and
recovery. “Because
of the interdependencies, there are prospects for
cascading failures across systems we think are
separate, across the power grid, communications
network, transportation links and water and
sewer/systems.”
Underpinning
the research summit, organized by CIT on behalf of
its 14 university partners in the institute, is
the goal of uniting multiple world-class centers
in
Virginia
universities
to compete better for complex research initiatives
funded by the federal government and industry.
Virginia
universities
as a group recognized the need to focus research,
invest in long-term strategies and collaborate
more by partnering to launch IDHS just four months
ago. [“Research
Drives Development,”
February 17,
2003
]
CIT
President Pete Jobse has served as the IDHS
executive arm since then, and certainly can claim
the event as one of his major accomplishments thus
far. But the summit also allowed Jobse quietly to
introduce the new director of IDHS. Effective July
1, Hugh E. Montgomery, Jr., currently a senior
fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies
and just completing an assignment as the first
civilian technical director of the Marine Corps
Warfighting Laboratory, takes the helm.
Montgomery, who served more than a decade as the
Navy’s senior civilian executive for science and
technology requirements and resources on the staff
of the Chief of Naval Operations, calls it “an
honor” to direct the IDHS effort.
“IDHS
unites scientists and engineers across
institutions and disciplines with businesses
experienced in delivering products and services to
the federal government,”
Montgomery
explained. “
Virginia
has the
responsibility and the resources to engage fully
in technology development to support national
defense and homeland security requirements.”
Wandering
through the research summit certainly proved that
case. Here, UVA’s Dr. Gabriel Laufer discussed
low-cost remote sensors for chemical release or
attack. There, Virginia Tech’s world-class
wireless communications team of Drs. Scott Midkoff,
Charles Bostanian, Bill Carstensen and Mike Kurgan
outlined how to rapidly deploy broadband wireless
networks to support emergency response personnel.
Down the hall Dr. Richard Drake of the
Eastern
Virginia
Medical
School
showed how
proteomic profiles and diagnosis of pathogens
could boost bio-defense efforts. The summit was a
25-course feast for futurists.
For
the record, the newly named co-chairmen of the
institute’s board are former Secretary of the
Army John O. “Jack” Marsh, Jr. and Virginia
Secretary of Technology George C. Newstrom. Just
as impressive are board members recognized for
their leadership in the science, technology,
research and the federal contracting space – CIO
Steve Cooper of the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security, Michael Daniels of SAIC and Jim
Wrightson of Lockheed Martin. Assistant to the
Governor for Commonwealth Preparedness John H.
Hager also is a member, which interlocks the work
of the institute with the Secure Virginia Panel he
chairs.
There
undoubtedly will be many more IDHS initiatives, as
many as circumstance and an ambitious mission to
generate hundreds of millions of dollars more in
research for Virginia’s research
universities require. But the remarkable
accomplishment for
Virginia
is the
movement of an idea over multiple institutional
and state government hurdles to an organization
with traction in less than year. This is the kind
of movement that is critical in a dynamic economy
in a world changing continuously. It signals both
federal agencies and technology businesses that
Virginia
is going to be
a drive wheel, not a brake, for cutting-edge
research that is commercially viable.
A
wide range of participants in policy and
governmental matters recognize the role as drive
wheel on research as a very different one than
Virginia
employs in
wrestling with other change-driven challenges.
Virginians still don’t use a systems approach on
education, transportation, health care and other
problems, but the prospects of cascading failures
certainly exist there, too. Integrating the data
with analysis tools is the beginning, but infusing
the process with commitment and energy is the real
lesson of the Institute for Defense and Homeland
Security model. Ideology and partisan politics
need not apply.
--
June
30, 2003
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