New Jersey Center for Homeland Security Research
1.
Introduction
Beginning in 1993 with the first terrorist attack at the World Trade Center, through the Anthrax attacks in the Fall
of 2001, New Jersey has been affected by and was a target of terrorism. As the nation's most densely populated state,
home to a myriad of high technology, pharmaceutical, radiological, and chemical industries, a hub for the nation’s
transportation, agricultural, petrochemical and other critical infrastructures, and a neighbor of major cities New York
and Philadelphia, New Jersey is both vulnerable to further terrorism and an ideal testbed for new methods and tools of
homeland defense. In conjunction with the NJ Domestic Security Preparedness Task Force that was created by the State
Legislature and other formal and informal groups created after September 11, New Jersey’s research universities have
capitalized on a history of cooperation among themselves and with government and private institutions to collaborate in
homeland security activities. It seems natural to build on this ongoing cooperation to create a homeland security center
of excellence in NJ.
In the fight against terrorism, a solution provided by a broad coalition of university, government and industry
partners will be far more effective than a series of uncoordinated efforts. New methodologies and technologies will be
needed for the fight against terrorism. The state has over 11,400 high-tech businesses. More than 184,337 jobs result
directly from the high-tech industry, with an additional 237,000 jobs resulting from indirect or "downstream"
employment. Wages from technology or related jobs are estimated at $5.5 billion. Sales exceed $15.7 billion in the
technology industry. Tax revenue gained from the technology industry equaled nearly $2.7 billion last year. NJ Ranks
seventh in high tech employment and second in high tech average wage. The battle against terrorism will be fought and
won in part by high technology solutions in sensors, communications, information technology. New Jersey high tech
companies stand to be major players in conjunction with the Dept of Homeland Security, but not independently. The
approach must be regional and well coordinated and our proposed center can play a significant role. University research
related to homeland security is already carried out with a variety of industrial partners and has already led to new
products and services. A center will give us a way to launch these new products and services rapidly and widely.
2.
Building on Strengths
Without a major, coordinated effort, the university partners in this enterprise have already launched significant
research efforts. At Rutgers University alone, there is now over $31M [more?] in external funding for homeland
security research efforts. Imagine what could be done with the coordination provided by a center. We give a number of
examples (by no means inclusive) of efforts underway at the partner institutions, all to be integrated into the proposed
center. Since much of the activity we will describe is already taking place in individual units in our partner universities,
the center will interpret its role as striving to develop projects that interface between different groups, cutting across
disciplines and universities, thus creating synergies and leveraging group activities so as to be able to develop more
comprehensive projects and compete for large blocks of federal funding.
Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOSHI) (joint Rutgers-UMDNJ). EOHSI researchers
have been doing environmental modeling and exposure analysis for more than 25 years and have developed strong,
multidisciplinary tools adaptable to homeland defense. EOHSI projects include analysis of exposure and effects of the
WTC attack, integrated biologic and chemical warfare defense technology, exposure and risk modeling for atmospheric
releases, and personal protective equipment selection for E.R. workers after a chemical homeland security event. Still
another EOHSI project involves computer aids to respond to sensor data to alert to, identify, and quantify an agent
released in the community. H.S.Funding: Industrial Partners: Government Partners:
Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS) (joint Rutgers-Princeton):
DIMACS was founded as an NSF “science and technology center,” the only NJ institution to earn this distinguished
NSF award. The center applies modern mathematical, statistical, and computer science approaches to homeland security
problems such as detection of bioterrorist attacks. Methods of statistical learning theory are being applied to the
monitoring of large streams of text messages, in a joint project with the intelligence community. An epidemiological
modeling project with close ties to federal emergency preparedness modeling efforts at CDC, HHS, and local and state
health departments includes efforts to include economic variables in bioterrorism defense public policy. DIMACS is
working on information/computer security, the use of modern algorithmic methods to share information between
databases, and the use of methods developed in partner telecom companies in new applications for location of
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bioterrorism sensors. H.S.Funding: $4.5M. Industrial Partners: 8 partners, including AT&T Labs, Avaya Labs, Bell
Labs, Telcordia Technologies. Government Partners: CDC, HHS, local and state health departments in NJ and NY,
DTRA, intelligence community
School of Engineering (SOE) (Rutgers New Brunswick):: SOE faculty are active participants in various centers such
as CAIP, CAIT, and WINLAB described elsewhere. Numerous efforts at SOE are devoted to using new materials or
building new devices to enhance homeland security surveillance efforts. Projects include developing sensors to monitor
joints of bridges and tunnels; exploring the use of advanced monitoring systems with sensors made through layered
manufacturing processes; developing novel ZnO biochemical sensor networks (jointly with UMDNJ physicians);
studying the use of THz spectroscopy to detect pathogens; and experimenting with novel scintillation materials for
threat detection. Other work involves detection and identification of biochemical materials on packages; using UV light
sources for biodetection; and making use of novel ultrasonic transducers for land and underwater monitoring. SOE
faculty also work on protecting the economic infrastructure by developing new materials to protect building glass, and
developing high-performance power sources. H.S.Funding: Industrial Partners: Merck, EMCORE, Inc.,
ExxonMobilResearch, NJ Nanotechnology Consortium, Bell Labs, Princeton Optronics, ZN Technology. Government
Partners: NJ DOT, US DOT, Port Authority of NY/NJ, Picatinny Arsenal, CECOM (Fort Monmouth)
Center for Advanced Information Processing (CAIP) (Rutgers New Brunswick): A project on biometric
identification starts from the observation that dealing with large numbers of identifications where the consequences are
extremely dire (as in airports) poses a great challenge because the tolerable error rate must be low. A research project on
multimodal biometrics is aimed at using multiple measurements and evaluations to elevate reliability. Other projects at
CAIP involve detection of plastic explosives in luggage; fusion of visual and infrared imagery; and human/computer
interfaces for natural and efficient interaction in high-stress homeland security applications. H.S.Funding: $7.5M.
Industrial Partners: CAIP has xxx industrial partners, including … Also, Scan-Tech. Government Partners: FAA,
US Army CECOM
Center for the Study of Terrorism (CST) (Rutgers Newark): CST is an interdisciplinary collaboration of the Schools
of Criminal Justice, Law, Nursing, Business, and the Center for Global Change and Governance, focusing on research
and public policy analysis of terrorism and its consequences, working with law enforcement, first responders, and
corporate security departments. Capitalizing on Newark as a major transportation hub in North America, research is
underway to understand how terrorism can impact land, sea and air travel in the region. Interactions with the
Counterterrorism Information Sharing Consortium and to first and second responders enables CST to develop methods
through real risk communication problems. H.S.Funding: Industrial Partners: Verizon, PSE&G, Prudential Financial,
Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Lucent. Government Partners:
Cook College and the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station (Rutgers New Brunswick): Cook College and
the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Stations offer expertise in plant and animal health, pathology, and toxicology;
marine and waterway science and ecology; environmental sciences; and food science and safety. GIS modeling of food
production, hand-held nanotechnology to identify food-borne pathogens, and analytical techniques to predict plant and
animal diseases are other projects underway. A risk-based economic modeling tool for the threat and consequences of
agroterrorism, developed at Cook, is actively used by sectors within the agricultural industry. H.S.Funding: Industrial
Partners: MacNeill Nutrtionals, Merck, Adapco, Zoecon, Bayer Environmental Science. Government Partners:
Division of Animal Health, Bureau of Child Nutritional Services
Center for Computational Biomedicine Imaging and Modeling (CBIM) (Rutgers New Brunswick): CBIM was
founded to serve as an environment for conducting novel research in the areas of computational biomedicine, computer
vision and computer graphics. CBIM researchers work on the analysis of human activities from video and in particular
detection of humans in cluttered environments (e.g., hidden near trees), lie detection based on facial expressions, and
recognition of humans based on gait and body measurements (face, arms, hands). H.S.Funding: $2M. Industrial
Partners: Siemens Government Partners:
Warnings and Indications Systems Engineering (WISE) Center (Rutgers New Brunswick): WISE focuses on
technologies that provide real-time intelligence information for first responders. Research projects include dirty bomb
identification systems (joint with the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab), face identification systems, speaker identification
systems, and plastic explosive identification systems. Tools include use of signal processing algorithms using data from
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sensors and sensor networks. H.S.Funding: Industrial Partners: Government Partners: DHS, Picatinny Arsenal,
Port Authority of NY/NJ, NJ Turnpike Authority, NJ State Police.
School of Information and Library Studies (SCILS) (Rutgers New Brunswick): SCILS faculty use unique
behavioral methods to identify markers of truthfulness and deception in emotionally-charged situations like a counterterror interview, and to collaborate with colleagues to develop computer vision and other technologies to assess these
behaviors in real time. Other SCILS projects involve collaboration through computer/communication networks;
understanding streams of information such as text messages; and novel methods for encoding dynamic information.
H.S.Funding: $1.5M add Kantor funding – this is Frank. Industrial Partners: Quasar, Jet Propulsion Lab, Erica Inc.,
Honeywell, Institute of Analytic Interviewing, Boeing. Government Partners: Federal Law Enforcement Training
Center, National Counter-Intelligence Executive, US Coast Guard Training Center, local and state judicial and law
enforcement.
Center for Information Management, Integration and Connectivity (CIMIC) (Rutgers Newark): H.S.Funding:
Industrial Partners: Government Partners:
Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT) (Rutgers New Brunswick): CAIT is active in
providing security against biological, chemical, and radiological attacks for critical transportation infrastructures such as
airports, transit hubs, and marine terminals. Evacuation of complex transportation facilities are simulated using complex
custom-made models that are to be used for training facilities managers. Another project deals with pipeline security.
H.S.Funding: $125K. Industrial Partners: Government Partners: US DOT, Federal Highway Administration, Port
Authority of NY/NJ, NJ Transit.
Institute for Marine and Coastal Studies (IMCS) (Rutgers New Brunswick): IMCS uses an existing high frequency
radar network to include the dual-use capability of vessel tracking for homeland defense. This extends the harbor
borders to the edge of the “exclusive economic zone,” enabling the Coast Guard to determine which vessels to target for
inspection. H.S.Funding: $1.6M. Industrial Partners: Codar Ocean Sensors, Applied Mathematics Inc. Government
Partners: Coast Guard, DOD Counterdrug Technology Development Program Office.
Wireless Information Network Laboratory (WINLAB) (Rutgers New Brunswick): An industry-university
cooperative research center, WINLAB has several projects related to homeland security: the development of a prototype
multimodal sensor-on-silicon chip that would be a key enabling component for emerging sensor applications; a
prototype system to explore the benefits of high-bit-rate short-range “infostation” coverage at emergency sites; and the
development of resource-efficient security protocols suitable for providing data confidentiality and authentication in
cellular, ad hoc, and WLAN networks. H.S.Funding: $3.5M. Industrial Partners: WINLAB has xxx industrial
partners, including xxxx. Government Partners:
Statistics Department (Rutgers New Brunswick): Among the homeland security projects in the department is work
on combination of biometric systems, face recognition, signal processing, and network models and research on the use
of statistical tools for finding patterns in large data sets. H.S.Funding: $800K. Industrial Partners: Merck
Government Partners:
Computer Science Department (Rutgers, New Brunswick): Projects in CS include cross-language information
retrieval, with application to monitoring communications; developing rapid response systems for local-area networking
systems; development of regulatory mechanisms for distributed systems to control modern networked systems in terms
of security and privacy; algorithms for analysis of streaming data; and a wearable sensors project. add imielinski
H.S.Funding: $2.3M [add more; this is only Minsky], Industrial Partners: IBM, Navajo Partnership (NJ), Panasonic
of NJ, Government Partners:
Waksman Institute of Microbiology (Rutgers New Brunswick): Waksman was a unique early success story in
industry-university collaboration, tracing back to the discovery of antibiotics and their scale-up in industrial production.
After 9/11, the federal government recognized that lack of trained microbiologists poses a security problem for the US,
and Waksman is playing a role in addressing this problem. Developing homeland security projects at Waksman deal
with genomic and biochemical analysis of bacteriophages infecting select agent bacteria (plague, anthrax, and glanders
bacteria); phage therapy of glanders; and biochemical analysis to defend against genetically altered anthrax.
H.S.Funding: Industrial Partners: Government Partners:
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Princeton Plasma Physics Lab (PPPL) (Princeton): PPPL has many years of experience in designing systems that
work in high noise environments. A major effort at PPPL involves the detection of radioactive materials that could be
used to make “dirty bombs.” The Miniature Integrated Nuclear Detection System (MINDS) is a sensitive radiation
detection system developed at PPPL in conjunction with a signal processing, feature extraction system developed at
Rutgers. H.S.Funding:$250K. Industrial Partners: Government Partners: Picatinny Arsenal, Port Authority of
NY/NJ, NJ Turnpike Authority, NJ State Police
Bendheim Center (Princeton): Funding: Industrial Partners: Faculty work on risk assessment through
interdisciplinary research in finance, from quantitative or mathematical perspectives; researchers study financial
markets and asset prices, linking economics and fields such as engineering and psychology. Work includes economic
modeling relevant to homeland security. H.S.Funding: Industrial Partners: Government Partners:
Department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering (ORFE) (Princeton): Faculty perform research on
risk assessment relevant to homeland security. H.S.Funding: Industrial Partners: Government Partners:
Department of Electrical Engineering (Princeton): writeup coming
H.S.Funding: Industrial Partners: Government Partners:
Department of Computer Science (Princeton): writeup coming
H.S.Funding: Industrial Partners: Government Partners:
Center for BioDefense (UMDNJ, Newark): The Center for BioDefense is dedicated to providing resources for
traditional and non-traditional first responders. It assists first responders, hospitals, and other health care facilities with
development of preparedness programs and model bioterrroism plans. The Center works with emergency management
and other officials as well as hospital clinical and other staff in comprehensive training, planning, exercising, and
preparedness efforts. The Center also provides epidemiological and surveillance expertise; and supplies consulting
services to a variety of health organizations, including working closely with local and the State's Departments of Health
on related matters. The Center has a state-of-the-art biosafety level three lab. When the anthrax attacks of 2001
overwhelmed the state’s laboratories, they turned to the Center to assist with the very large number of potential anthrax
spores and this relationship is now institutionalized by a formal agreement. H.S.Funding: $5M. Industrial Partners:
PSE&G. Government Partners: NJ Attorney General, NJ Dept. of Law and Public Safety, NJ state Policy, NJ OEM,
NJ Dept. of Health and Senior Services, NJ National Guard, NJ DEP
Xxxxx (Stevens Institute of Technology): H.S.Funding: Industrial Partners: Government Partners:
XXXXX (NJIT): H.S.Funding: Industrial Partners: Government Partners:
3. Industrial and Government Partners
Industrial and government partners will play a key role in this center, serving to advise us on research priorities and
working hand-in-hand with center researchers in joint projects. We describe the role of individual research partners in
the section that follows.
4. Center Projects
We envision a wide-ranging center dealing with security of health, transportation systems, borders, air, food
and water, natural resources, economic infrastructure (such as buildings, bridges/tunnels/highways), and
communication. The projects we envision break up into three main categories: Protecting the Critical Infrastructure;
Surveillance/Detection/Monitoring; and Exposure/Response
The following represent some of the projects on which center researchers could concentrate in the initial years.
Because homeland security challenges and relevant technologies are changing so rapidly, we expect that the portfolio of
tasks will change as the center matures. Procedures for choosing the initial set of projects and allocating center
resources to them will be described below.
Projects to Protect the Critical Infrastruture
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We will investigate a variety of tools and technologies for protecting the critical infrastructure, including
advanced materials and devices, mathematical models, information technology, economics, biology/biomedical, and
legal and criminal justice.
Project: Protecting our Health. We will make use of mathematical and computer modeling approaches in
epidemiology to analyze different bioterrorism defense policies and strategies. Methods will build on the
interdisciplinary projects carried out through DIMACS in collaboration with Princeton biologists, UMDNJ experts on
disease clusters, and Rutgers computer scientists, statisticians, mathematicians and operations researchers. We will
develop modeling tools to aid in determining optimal vaccination strategies in conjunction with experts from CDC,
Merck Research, and elsewhere. We will develop O.R. models to help determine efficient stockpiling strategies for
medicines and vaccines, efficient allocation policies in case of an attack, and efficient location and queuing protocols
for distribution of prophylactic devices and medications. This work will build on existing partnerships with modeling
groups at local, state, and federal agencies.
Can we add some work at UMDNJ? At EOHSI? At CST?
This project will be closely correlated with surveillance projects at DIMACS aimed at using data mining to give early
warnings of adverse disease events indicative of some kind of bioterrorist attack.
Project: Protecting the Transportation System. Protecting the transportation system and our borders involves a
combination of inspection, planning, and the use of new technologies. New technologies for baggage inspection will be
developed as part of our surveillance efforts. Tools for decision support for border security, developed at Rutgers
CIMIC, will be enhanced and generalized to aid in transportation security applications. Our ports of entry currently
inspect only about 2% of all containers that arrive at major container ports in New Jersey, California, and elsewhere.
Tools for container inspection include tracking vessels’ port-calls, xray inspection, use of lasers and sensors, and visual
inspection. Algorithmic methods will be developed to answer such questions as what order to perform different
inspections in and what thresholds to use to trigger different levels of inspection. ADD re CAIT
Project: Protecting the Economic Infrastructure. Work will involve development of new materials to harden targets
against attack. For instance, Rutgers SOE and Dupont are collaborating to develop the next generation of glass laminate
structures that can withstand powerful explosions. Challenges for further research include developing an electro-optic
layer which would serve as a piezoelectric sensor to detect a shock wave or fracture event so catastrophic failure of the
glass can be avoided.
Work at Rutgers SOE will also involve design and development of new electrode and electrolyte materials and highperformance electrochemical power devices based on these new materials, which could be critical for various homeland
security applications.
Project: Protecting our Food and Water Supply Protection against malicious introduction of pathogens or causative
agents into the food system depends upon advances in detection and identification technologies. Researchers at Cook
will work on development of hand-held nanometers using rapid immunoreagent and assay technology and product
identification tagging codes to detect, identify, trace, and assure microbiological and chemical safety of foods through
all stages of harvest, handling, processing, production, and distribution.
Researchers at Cook and DIMACS will apply mathematical modeling tools to develop strategies for deterring an
agroterrorist attack. Attacks could occur with multiple agents, possibly coordinated to specifically compromise
detection and/or response systems. New sophisticated models that account for these possibilities will need to be
developed. One of the best ways to deter an attack is to minimize the amount of damage it could cause, and we will
analyze alternative agricultural methods aimed at doing this, e.g., encouraging genetic heterogeneity in crops,
intercropping, using buffer zones between genetically similar crops, and reducing the mobility of crops and animals by
requiring an observation/quarantine period before transport. These measures could represent a costly departure from
present agricultural practices and determining their cost-effectiveness will require extensive modeling.
Insert CIMIC project on water supply security.
Project: Communication/Software Security. To protect our communication infrastructure, since there are very few
methods to stop an attack on a communication network while it is happening, it is essential to adapt the network and
security infrastructure to minimize the effect of a malicious attack, while maintaining a desirable level of performance.
WINLAB faculty will develop network adaptation countermeasures to mitigate the harmful effects of attacks on our
communication infrastructure, through development of distributed error recovery nodes in a network and the use of
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authenticated adaptive routing techniques to circumvent security weakpoints. Rutgers CS faculty will explore regulatory
mechanisms for establishing internal controls over networked enterprises to enhance their trustworthiness, protecting
enterprises from the outside, and enhancing the work of distributed coalitions of enterprises.
CAIP researchers will explore low bit-rate coding for secure communications.
New materials and devices can help with communication security. SOE faculty will work on tunable, programmable,
adaptive filters that can adapt to changing environmental conditions and offer a secure communications channel which
can be changed “on the fly” to reduce jamming or interception by a hostile agent. They will also work on an optical
code division multiple access system using wavelength address encoding to define an exponentially large number of
communications channels, contributing to secure communication.
Modern algorithmic approaches will be applied through DIMACS to defense against large-scale internet attacks;
security analysis of protocols underlying homeland security planning and response plans; security of web services;
intrusion detection and network security management systems; and database security. In the latter area, for example, we
will develop methods for dynamic query authorization to protect against forbidden inferences about data based on
responses to prior queries. This work will include partners at AT&T Labs, Bell Labs, HP Labs (Princeton), NEC Labs
(Princeton), and Telcordia Technologies.
Insert information security systems - CIMIC
It is widely believed that the greatest threat to computer security today is not cryptographic weakness but rather
flawed software design and implementation, and weakness in protecting information within software and hardware. In
economic terms, the cost of software vulnerabilities to the US economy is already billions of dollars annually
and is projected to grow substantially. Software security is also crucial to US national security and protecting critical
national infrastructure that is controlled by potentially faulty or insecure software. Princeton CS faculty will focus on
the fundamental challenge of modifying software in a manner which allows it to remain functional while at the same
time guaranteeing security. They will work on protection from malicious or flawed software and software and
hardware secrecy through “principled obfuscation.” This work will involve partners at Telcordia Technologies.
Project. Using Economic Tools. The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that the September 11 th attacks destroyed
$16 billion of private and public property, not counting loss of life, the failure of airlines and layoffs due to lost travel,
and increases in counter-terrorism and insurance costs. If economic destruction is the goal of terrorist activity then it is
critically important to develop theoretical and empirical models in order to understand motives, opportunities and the
potential magnitude and extent of attacks and responses. In a report entitled “Making the Nation Safer,” the National
Academy of Science expresses the need to understand the relationship among economics, terrorism, human reactions,
and risk perceptions and the need for modeling tools to analyze the health and economic impacts of terrorist attacks and
bring economic factors into the analysis of alternative prevention and response strategies. Our center will explore ways
accomplish such goals. We will study ways to assess the economic cost of alternative preventive or response policies,
compare them to cost of an attack, and consider the risk-based comparison of alternative policies using expected utility
methods. For instance, what is the economic cost of different quarantine policies, of alternative vaccination policies
(before or after a B-T attack), the closing of airports or schools? Changing agricultural or other industrial practices can
reduce vulnerability to attacks, but at what economic cost? We will analyze tradeoffs between cost of implementing a
policy and risk-based cost of not implementing it. The duration and spread of economic effects will vary and we will
use “what if” scenarios around general equilibrium models to study these. Liability and insurance policies will also be
examined, e.g., indemnification for livestock and crop destruction in defense against a B-T attack.
Our economic systems create vulnerabilities. Can we modify them to reduce vulnerabilities, thus decreasing
likelihood of an attack? What is the economic cost of reducing terrorist exposure by reversing the trend toward genetic
homogeneity of crops or vast agricultural monocultures, our heavy dependence on electronic financial records, etc.?
Also, can we make use of economic factors to deter attacks? Can we identify key economic criteria that terrorists would
seek so as to maximize economic damage and use shifts in supply and demand to create economic countermeasures to
terrorist attacks? To answer these questions, we will use game-theoretic approaches under the assumption that terrorists
and responders are both aware of each others’ vulnerabilities, network reliability theory to find vulnerable economic
nodes, and explore the interface between computer science and economics to enhance our ability to use tools like
information markets (of recent interest at DARPA).
Project participants will include Rutgers economists, psychologists, sociologists, and risk experts from the Business
School and Center for Operations Research (RUTCOR), criminologists from the CST, engineers from CAIT, and
modelers and mathematical social scientists from DIMACS and Mathematics, Food Policy Institute, and Dept. of
Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics. Princeton participants will come from ORFE, Bendheim, Engineering, and
CS experts on networks and secure information economy. We expect considerable involvement from partners at Lucent,
AT&T, Telcordia Technologies, and US Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM) at Fort Monmouth.
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Project: Using Legal and Criminal Justice System Approaches. Faculty in the Rutgers Schools of Law and Criminal
Justice, working through CST, will explore target hardening through law enforcement or corporate security. They will
also explore ways to use the criminal justice system and revised immigration policies to apprehend terrorists. NEEDS
EXPANSION.
Project. Improving Homeland Security Decision Making and Risk Communication. In “Making the Nation Safer,”
the National Academy of Science recommends the use of modeling tools by homeland security decision makers. The
large number of variables needed to analyze potential terrorist events, variables interacting in complex ways, make
intuition difficult and imply the use of sophisticated and precise mathematical analysis, aided by powerful computer
methods. Mathematical models can be critical tools for decision makers when used wisely and under the guidance of
modeling experts and they will be used throughout the center’s work. We propose to educate decision makers as to
what models can and cannot do and to the uses and abuses of models and their benefits and risks. We will also analyze
and develop decision-support software to aid model builders. This project will build on our extensive experience in
working with real decision makers in various public policy domains, including public health and defense. Building on
efforts initiated after 9/11, we will analyze past decision making in crisis situations, to “model the decision makers” so
as to help them improve future crisis decision making. Project Participants will be Rutgers, Princeton, and UMDNJ
researchers in computer science, mathematics, operations research, statistics, the biological sciences, epidemiology and
public health, criminal justice, economics, sociology, political science, and anthropology.
“Making the Nation Safer” also recommended that policy makers develop communication strategies with accurate
information to soothe and mitigate the public’s fears. The science of “risk communication” will be developed to make
this possible and policy makers will be educated in risk communication methods. The risk communication efforts will
involve Rutgers researchers from DIMACS, Sociology, the School of Information and Library Studies (SCILS), Human
Ecology, FPI, Nursing, and CST and UMDNJ researchers from the Center for BioDefense, EOHSI, Public Health. Our
government agency partners will be heavily involved in both parts of this project.
Projects in Surveillance/Detection/Monitoring
Approaches to surveillance/detection/monitoring in the center will include the use of tools from the mathematical
sciences (computer science, mathematics, statistics, operations research), and information technology more generally;
biometrics; use of new materials/devices; behavioral approaches; use of the legal/criminal justice system; using the
communication system; and using the existing infrastructure.
Project . Mathematical Sciences Tools for Surveilance. Surveillance in homeland security applications typically
involves dealing with huge data sets. Modern methods of data mining will be used to identify potential risk events.
Methods of data mining to detect bioterrorist or other attacks will be explored. Algorithms for handling massive
amounts of data in “one pass” as they stream by will be developed, with an emphasis on anomaly and outlier detection.
We will utilize statistical learning theory and signal detection methods to detect “new events” from large datasets of text
messages; to find patterns in large textual data sets; to detect patterns through cross-language comparisons; and to detect
dirty bombs and plastic explosives. We will develop ways to compactly represent data so as to be better able to apply
these datamining techniques. We will analyze approaches to early warning data using modern techniques of risk
assessment, study how to measure the economic cost of false alarms under different scenarios, and develop modern
statistical tools for minimizing false alarms. We will build on early connections to new industrial partners dealing with
health-care data mining, in particular Quintiles, Inc., Emergint, SAS Institute, Aventis, Humri & Co. Harvard Pilgrim,
and Lincoln Technologies.
Systems to develop detectors for the radionuclides used in dirty bombs will be developed in a collaboration between
Rutgers WISE and Princeton PPPL. Multiple sensors should be able to obtain better results than any one sensor acting
alone, and methods of signal detection developed at Rutgers will be applied to fuse information from multiple sensors,
using data from field tests at PPPL. The research challenges include development of systems that will monitor a stream
of fast-moving vehicles (e.g., at an EZ-Pass plaza) rather than a vehicle that has stopped or slowed down considerably;
developing the system for use at maritime locations or aboard moving vehicles such as police cars; and producing
miniaturized detectors that can be used with airborne or unmanned air vehicles. Work on existing systems has been
carried out in close consultation with the Port Authority of NY/NJ, the NJ Turnpike Authority, and the NJ State Police.
Privacy issues are a major obstacle in homeland security surveillance. We will build on DIMACS’ projects on health
care data privacy and confidentiality and similar efforts at UMDNJ and Rutgers CS (using regulatory mechanisms for
distributed systems), with the help of privacy experts at HP Labs (Princeton).
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There will be considerable emphasis on the use of sensors and sensor networks, starting with work at DIMACS on
modifying combinatorial algorithms developed by our industrial partners to determine efficient ways to locate the
sensors. An interdisciplinary group will also study ways to minimize risk through redundancy in surveillance devices
such as sensors, novel location strategies involving dynamic location switching and mobile sensors. Recently-developed
statistical methods will be used to develop methods for interpreting patterns of alarms from sensor networks and
decision rules used in missile defense will be modified for sensor interpretation uses.
We will work closely with policy makers in homeland security and public health agencies to help them improve their
plans for use of surveillance methods and will work closely with our industrial partners to make use of the powerful
surveillance methods they have developed to monitor credit card fraud, network attacks, etc.
Project participants will include DIMACS, SCILS, WISE, Rutgers Statistics and CS, SOE, EOHSI, Princeton CS,
PPPL, our partners from AT&T Labs, Avaya Labs, Bell Labs, and Telcordia Technologies, and government agencies in
transportation, health care, etc..
Project: Developing and Utilizing New Materials/Devices for Surveillance. This effort, involving Rutgers SOE and
Physics faculty, will be devoted to using new materials or building new devices to enhance homeland security
surveillance efforts. Scintillation materials are useful for homeland security because they have the ability to act as the
enabling component in gamma-ray detectors, so by choosing the right material detectors can be engineered with high
sensitivity and energy resolution sufficient to detect radioactive materials and plastic explosives. We will explore ways
to cut the cost of such detectors by using inexpensive power processing methods rather than expensive conventional
melt crystal growth and rare earth minerals. This work will be carried out together with Ceramare Corporation, a
Rutgers start-up actively engaged in the development of scintillation materials.
Sensor projects will include work at SOE and UMDNJ with ZnO to create nanoscale sensors. This work is described
below. We will also work at SOE on advanced monitoring systems with sensors that integrate strain, vibration,
temperature and humidity combined in an advanced hybrid system. Using layered manufacturing processes, strain and
vibration sensors based on novel smart (piezoelectric and piezoresistive) paints will be developed specifically for
critical elements and joints of bridges and tunnels. We will explore a wireless communication system to continually
observe the conditions of the structures and transmit conditions to a command post. Monitoring systems aimed at
protecting the NJ shore and port will be developed at SOE through the use of novel ultrasonic transducers, based on new
flextensional components, with important underwater applications. Faculty at Rutgers Physics will continue their efforts
to develop an inexpensive, small detector/monitor for detecting weapons-grade aerosols, wet or dry. Partners here will
continue to be Princeton Scientific Instruments and Commercial Services Corporation.
Since micro-biological organisms absorb and emit light in the ultraviolet (UV) range, portable, battery-powered LEDs
with strong UV emission and absorption characteristics might be used in small lightweight bioterrorism agent detection
devices and SOE faculty will explore this possibility.
Additional projects will include work at SOE to use THz spectroscopy to detect pathogens; development of a
handheld fluorescence and absorption-mode spectrometer using UV and broadband sources and an integrated MEMS
wavelength-tunable detector to detect and identify bio/chem materials on packages; the development of a nextgeneration focal plane array camera for clear night vision (building on a partnership with Sensors Unlimited, Inc. in
Princeton).
Project: Biometrics and Behaviorial Approaches. Techniques for personal identification that will be explored include
face recognition, gait recognition, voice analysis, finger and palm prints, and iris and retinal patterns. We will build on
work at CBIM and use stochastic methods to track humans, human faces, arms and hands and subsequently recognize
actions. Other tools to be investigated through CBIM include deformable and stochastic model theory for segmentation
and shape estimation and graphical models for human action recognition. In related work, Rutgers WISE researchers
will explore the use of neural network-based software to make identifications from face and voice prints, and we will
create partnerships between them and Rutgers and Princeton statisticians.
While some biometric identification methods achieve relatively high accuracy, dealing with large numbers of
applications such as in airport screening poses a greater challenge since the tolerable error in miss rate must be
extremely low. In an airport such as Newark Libery, about 70,000 persons pass through per day and even a method with
2% error rate, equally divided between false positive and false negative, would allow 700 potential terrorists to get
through and subject 700 innocent people to extensive search. Multiple measurements can elevate reliability and we shall
investigate the research challenge of combining or fusing multiple measurements using different methods, so as to
minimize error rate. We will build on work at CAIP on computer interfaces that permit communication with complex
information systems using normal sensory modes of sight, sound, and touch. One aspect of this work involves
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pupillometry data provided by a gaze tracker to gauge emotional states (e.g. fatigue, high stress). This work is in
conjunction with OccularTec, a New Jersey development company.
An alternative multi-pronged approach will be carried out by Rutgers statisticians using a combination of biometric
systems, face recognition, signal processing, and network models.
Add behavioral approaches –Mark Frank
Project: Using the Communication Systems for Surveillance. The communication system is an important tool for
homeland defense and has many unique applications. Through WINLAB, we will target the development of wireless
sensor-on-silicon towards homeland security scenarios. It is anticipated that such sensors would greatly assist in
detecting harmful chemicals and other biological agents that might be used during threats to our national security.
Further, the development of efficient wireless communication technologies will aim at maximizing battery life for
sensors that will be deployed in an ad hoc fashion at emergency sites.
Cross-sectoral data sharing will also be addressed both from a technical and practical (legal) point of view, with an
emphasis on the need for privacy. Working with our industrial partners at HP Labs and Telcordia Technologies, we will
develop algorithms for efficient data sharing between agencies under strict privacy constraints. Strong connections to
government agencies will make it easy to implement our ideas, for example through Rutgers’ participation in the
Counter Terrorism Information Sharing Consortium (CISC) through CST and information sharing projects with local
police at Rutgers-Camden.
An aspect of using the communication systems for surveillance includes monitoring those very systems, to
identify when they are under attack, and preferably to identify an attack before it brings whole subnets down. We will
investigate the behavior of the underlying network under different threats, developing models, simulations, and
implementations to proactively diagnose attacks at an early stage, to locate points of failure or compromise in the
network, and to explore the effect that different attacks have upon various network factors, such as routing and
communication delay. The development of methods for systematically monitoring the network for communication and
security weaknesses will be integrated into the countermeasures we will adapt to evolving communication and threat
conditions to improve the reliability of the network. While these efforts will emphasize the work of engineers and
computer scientists at WINLAB, other related efforts will build on novel attempts to make use of the analogies between
computer viruses and biological viruses through interdisciplinary partnerships at DIMACS.
Project: Using Biological Tools for Surveillance. Molecular biology and new advances in material technology provide
powerful tools for developing solutions for detection and treatment of biological agents that could be used as weapons
by terrorists. A collaboration between a physician at UMDNJ and an electrical engineer at the Rutgers SOE will build
on ZnO materials and its nanostructures to develop a novel, multifunctional and tunable biosensor technology. The
projects will make use of recent advances in nanoscale science and engineering to seek to fabricate novel nanobiosensors with faster response and higher sensitivity than planar sensor configurations, capable of detecting RNADNA, DNA-DNA, protein-protein, protein-DNA, and protein-small molecules interactions.
Virulent bacteriophages infecting and destroying select agent bacteria have been isolated; in principle, such phages
provide an attractive alternative to antibiotics in eradication of select agent bacteria, particularly strains that were
engineered to be antibiotic resistant and that are likely to be used by terrorists. Work will center on determination of
genomic sequences of numerous bacteriophages infecting select agent bacteria (which can be obtained from our partners
in Russia). Bioinformatic analysis will be used to identify phage proteins that can be involved in bacterial host killing
functions. We will also study the apparent silencing of hemolysin gene expression in B. anthracis, which can be used by
bioterrorists to overcome existing vaccines and increase the virulence of the pathogen. Some of this work will take
advantage of a new BSL3 facility planned for Rutgers New Brunswick and some will take advantage of past
collaborations between molecular biologists at Waksman with biochemists, mathematicians, and physicists through the
BioMaPS Institute at Rutgers and the DIMACS Center at Rutgers/Princeton.
We will also study plant diseases, making use of efforts at Cook on detection of plant diseases using xxxx,
mathematical modeling in botanical epidemiology at DIMACS, and world-famous experts on plant genomics at
Waksman.
Project: Using the Existing Infrastructure to Aid in Monitoring. The cost of monitoring can be cut significantly by
making use of existing infrastructure. We will explore several methods for doing this. At Rutgers’ IMCS, an existing
high frequency radar network is used to track ocean currents for scientific research, search and rescue, and hazardous
material spill response, using multiple, inexpensive HF radars that follow the curving ocean surface over 100 km
beyond the horizon, well beyond the range of traditional line-of-sight microwave radars that aircraft typically evade by
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flying low. We will work on making use of this system to track vessels approaching our harbors. Preliminary work has
been done in connection with Codar Ocean Sensors, Inc., developers of compact HF radar systems.
The New Jersey Weather and Climate Network, NJWxNet, operated through the NJ State climatologist in the Rutgers
Geography Department, is a comprehensive network of environmental monitoring stations providing real-time
observation from stations distributed throughout NJ. NJWxNet data and derived products provide a rich suite of
environmental information to enhance the safety and security of lives and property in the state. Many of the surveillance
projects in our center will benefit from this data source. Efforts to integrate ambient radiation sensors into NJWxNet
will continue, combined with work to train emergency management personnel in the use of the weather network.
Anticipated industry partners in this endeavor include major NJ gas, electric, water, and communication utilities and
chemical, petroleum, transportation, and other weather-sensitive companies.
The popular press has reported the proposal of putting sensors/detectors on cell towers. Doing this in a way that
would be optimal in terms of detection involves modification of methods used by AT&T Wireless, Bell Labs, and
others to figure out how to set antenna angles on cell towers for a given cell tower placement to optimize some overall
function and we will explore this idea with partners at Bell Labs.
Project: Surveillance, Monitoring, Privacy, and Legal Issues. Heightened security in intelligence, policing activities,
and development of new technologies is also raising legal concerns about civil liberties and privacy. We will bring
together representatives of law enforcement, corporate security, health and government to develop ways to balance new
domestic security concerns and legal issues. The work in this project will be based on academic study of the roots and
dissemination of terrorism at CST as well as practical experiences of those involved in homeland defense.
Projects in Exposure and Response
Developing methods for dealing with a terrorist attack will help us mitigate the damage caused and guide our
responses. We will have projects that allow us to estimate and predict levels of exposure, aid in emergency
communication, evacuate damaged facilities, manage emergency scenes, and clean up contaminated areas.
Project: Risk Assessment Modeling and Exposure and Response Risk assessment models are important in analyzing
exposure to environmental toxicology. We will use them to examine emergency response for the purposes of planning
and operation and to develop simulations to evaluate approaches to minimize exposure and risk for health care workers.
Through EOHSI, we will test and diagnostically evaluate environmental fate/transport models for their applicability in
examining situations of emergency response. We will link these models with exposure, dose, and risk assessment
modeling and simulate response to a variety of event types and strengths. Plume modeling will be used to assess the
path taken by a released agent for purposes of risk assessment on site and for prediction of exposures later in time. We
will also make use of methods of weather data collection and GIS tools to aid in this work. Modeling work will include
sensitivity and uncertainty analysis to help establish a range of variation in the predicted magnitude of an event and in
required levels of remediation. The pathways of exposure will include the air, water, soil and food. We will incorporate
risk assessment policies and practices of law enforcement, corporate and health sectors into models in order to develop
alternative approaches to evaluate and reduce risk. As part of this program we will be applying the known toxicological
dose response models for WMD to achieve a better understanding of the risks posed by low probability and high human
impact events. These results will be incorporated within scenario development for training and understanding the nature
of such events at the EMS and the State management level. These activities will be instrumental to other members of the
center in risk communication work.
Project: Emergency Communications. Emergency situations put special stress on telecommunications, as we found
out first-hand during the 9/11 attack. Among the challenges for telecom are to enable rapid, secure, and reliable
communication among first responders. Work on infostations for rapid wireless communication carried out at WINLAB
can form the basis for this type of effort. In an emergency situation, critical services are often ignored or shut down
because they become available too late; consider network router outage in disaster areas. Also, “unreliable =
unavailable.” Services that do exist become unusable after some time; consider Internet connectivity lost due to a
collapsing building or journalists using up scarce bandwidth. As our country's dependence on computer-controlled
systems grows, bringing them back online after an unforeseen disruption becomes ever more critical. Through Rutgers
CS, automated emergency response systems will be created using techniques developed in the field of reinforcement
learning, and emphasizing rapid response systems for local-area networking systems, web services, and electrical power
grids, pointing the way toward creating more self-aware and self-healing systems, specifically to achieve greater
resilience in times of need.
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“Rapid networks” are a new abstraction for networks that are put together in a very short time and provide the ability
to execute mission-critical tasks in a hostile dynamic environment, making use of existing devices and infrastructure,
yet connecting up to the wide variety of information resources available. We will build on early work on rapid networks
done through DIMACS, Rutgers CS, and Telcordia.
Project: Cleanup Methodologies. In the event of a terrorist attack, equipment, technologies, and strategies for cleanup
will aid us tremendously. Cleanup projects will include the development of rapidly-deployable robotic sampling
systems for chem./bio monitoring through xxxx and the development of better personal protective equipment for EMS
personnel through EOHSI. Plasma has been identified by the US military as the most promising methodology for
chem./bio warfare decontamination. SOE faculty will work on a new plasma source that operates in air, requires only
low DC voltage to operate, and can be deployed widely. Key applications will include facemask filters for personnel,
clothing and equipment decontamination, and large area decontamination. SOE faculty will develop analytical
techniques for complex mixture chemical characterization including technologies to clean contaminated water supplies
and methods for detecting remaining micropollutants in surface waters and processed waters.
Add EOHSI work on air and water purification systems.
Project: Emergency Preparedness/Emergency Managment. Building on work at the Center for BioDefense at
UMDNJ, which specializes in training and education of all sectors, including first responders, school officials, and
members of the general public, we will work closely with government organizations to help businesses, schools, and
other organizations develop contingency and other emergency plans, train personnel on awareness and other emergency
matters, and exercise the plans. Center forBioDefense researchers will also work with first responders and others on
information control and emergency management while EOHSI researchers will contribute technologies to aid in
emergency scene management.
P:roject: Evacuation Modeling. An important consideration in the development of any plan for homeland security is
the effect of a fire or explosion such as the one that devastated the WTC. SOE faculty will build on past work to
develop modeling tools to determine the rate of spread of a fire in a building, allowing for rapid implementation of
evacuation plans. Models will also include temperature rise in various regions of the building such as walls and support
beams.
Simulation methods can be very useful modeling tools in planning the evacuation of buildings, transportation
systems, etc. We will build on work at CAIT which uses complex simulation models as tools to train facilities managers
at transportation hubs and designing an emergency response system. Work will be closely integrated with our partners
at the Port Authority of NY/NJ and NJ Transit.
5. A Business Incubator
A number of the projects described already build on collaborative work with industry, both large and small. The
opportunities for new products and services abound. To aid in the development of new products and services, we will
use a new Homeland Security Building at Rutgers to open an incubator modeled after the Chesapeake Innovation Center
(CIC), which opened in August 2003 in Annapolis, Maryland as the nation's first homeland security business incubator.
The CIC is focused on growing firms specializing in the development of homeland security technology, and has formed
partnerships with the National Security Agency, Nokia/Innovent, ARINC, Piper Rudnick Law Firm, Johns Hopkins
University, and the University of Maryland to achieve its mission. Our incubator, like the CIC, will serve as a
"gateway," transferring technology between the public and private sectors and creating new opportunities for the
development of exciting technologies in homeland security. CIC will house 20-25 start-up companies and serve as a hub
for technology commercialization of early-stage ventures in the security/defense, communications and information
technology sectors, providing business start-up services, investment networks and flexible facilities to accelerate the
growth of early-stage ventures and increase their likelihood for success. Nokia/Innovent and Lighthouse
Communication Services are the first client companies to locate at the CIC. The goal of our incubator is to have the
partnerships create awareness of emerging technologies, assist with the transfer and commercialization of technology
from public and private sectors and stimulate the establishment of new businesses. The Information Security Institute at
the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland have joined other state and local sponsors to form the
strong business and technical advisory group necessary to accelerate the growth of the CIC start-ups and we expect the
New Jersey research universities involved in the proposed NJ Homeland Security Research center to play a similar role
in our state.
6. Management Plan
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The management of the center will revolve around a Director, Executive Committee (EC), Internal Advisory
Committee (IAC), and External Advisory Committee (EAC). The EC will include representatives from the participating
universities and will have responsibility for all major decisions including those regarding projects undertaken by the
center. The Director will report to the EC. Because this center is so broad in scope, we will have a large IAC that
consists of experts in the various research areas represented as well as appropriate administrators. The EAC will consist
of representatives of participating companies and participating government organizations. The EAC will meet annually
and hear presentations about center research, both past and proposed.
Representatives of various organizations have already agreed to serve on the EAC. They include representatives from
AT&T Labs, Bell Labs, xxxx ; and also representatives from US Army CECOM (Fort Monmouth), xxxxx.
Choice of center projects each year will be made by the EC, with input and advice from the IAC and EAC.
Constrained by agreed-upon allocations to individual institutions, the EC will use as criteria to choose projects the
likelihood of future external support, interdisciplinarity, the opportunities for new intra- and inter-university
partnerships, and the potential for impact on jobs and economic growth.
7. Budget
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Appendix: Center Participating Faculty
EOHSI: Paul Lioy, Panos Georgopoulos, Clifford Weisel, Robert Snyder, Mike Gallo (unconfirmed), Debra CorySlechta, Brian Buckley (unconfirmed), Mark Robson, Gediminas Mainelis (unconfirmed)
DIMACS: Fred Roberts, S. Muthukrishnan (also through CS), David Madigan (also through Stat.), Paul Kantor (also
through SCILS), Ilya Muchnik, Mel Janowitz, Endre Boros (also through RUTCOR)
SOE: Stan Dunn, Yicheng Lu (ECE), Monica Mazurek, Yanyong Zhang (ECE), Stephen Tse (Mechanical and
Aerospace Engineering), ,Assimina A. Pelegri (Mechanical and Aerospace Eng.), Timothy Wei (Mechanical and
Aerospace Eng.), Jian H. Zhao (ECE), Michael Parker (ECE), Richard Riman (Ceramic and Materials Eng.), Jun John
Xu (Ceramic and Materials Eng.), Ahmad Safari (Ceramic and Materials Eng.), Yogesh Jaluria (Mechanical and
Aerospace Eng.)
CAIP: James Flanagan, Larry Rabiner, Joe Wilder
CST: Les Kennedy, Louise Stanton
Cook: Keith Cooper, Audrey Cross, Calum Turvey, Margaret Brennan, Brian Schilling
CBIM: Dimitris Metaxas
WISE: Richard Mammone
SCILS: Paul Kantor, Mark Frank
CIMIC: Nabil Adam
CAIT: Ali Maher
IMCS: Scott Glenn, Fred Grassle
WINLAB: Dipankar Raychaudhuri, Wade Trappe
RU Statistics: Yehuda Vardi, David Madigan, Cun-hui Zhang, Regina Liu
RU CS: Tomasz Imielinski, B. R. Badrinath, S. Muthukrishnan, Michael Littman, Naftaly Minsky
Waksman: Joachim Messing, Konstantin Severinov
PPPL: Charles Gentile, Lewis Meixler
PU Bendheim Center
PU ORFE: Erhan Cinlar, Patrick Cherdito, John Mulvey, Jianqing Fan (so far, none confirmed)
Princeton CS: Bob Tarjan, Moses Charikar, Amit Sahai
Princeton Electrical Engineering: Erik VanMarcke, Maria Garlock, Julie Young, Li-Shuang Peh Margaret Martonosi
Center for BioDefense: Nancy Connell, Brendan McCluskey
Others at UMDNJ: Masyori Inouye
Stevens Institute of Technology: Stuart Tewksbury (ECE)
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NJIT:
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