The National Center for Secure and Resilient Maritime Commerce (CSR) completed its 2nd Summer Research Institute, held on the campus of Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J. For the second year, the Summer Research Institute provided a stipend and free housing to three students from the University of Miami (UM) - Samuel Otu-Amoah, Daniel Reynolds and Brian Paul - along 18 with students from other CSR partner schools. The prestigious eight-week research program is designed to tackle critical issues in maritime domain awareness, emergency response, and maritime system resilience to enhance our nation's maritime security.

UM faculty members Dr. Hans Graber and Roland Romeiser of the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science's Applied Marine Physics division and Dr. Shahriar Negahdaripour of the UM College of Engineering were among the faculty involved in this collaborative summer program.

"The CSR Summer Institute provides students from the University of Miami an introduction to the complexity of the maritime transportation system and how to protect it from a potential harmful threat." said Graber, UM professor of Applied Marine Physics and executive director of CSTARS (Center for Southeastern Tropical Advanced Remote Sensing), whose facility provided satellite images for students to use throughout the summer.

Students in the program focused on research issues related to Maritime Security, Transportation Systems Design for Resilience, and Cognitive Ports.

They were able to visit ports, working laboratories and government sites in the region. Students also engaged in seminars and lectures by CSR researchers, maritime industry and government experts, and this year participated in hands-on modeling and simulation projects dealing with a terrorist threat inside the port of New York.

"Using a multi-tiered surveillance system consisting of radar and optical sensors on satellites, IR and HD optical cameras overlooking the Hudson River at the Stevens campus, high frequency radar tracking, and acoustic monitoring, the students tracked a small, unknown vessel entering the port and navigating up the Hudson River," said UM Associate Professor Romeiser, "This allowed the students to get an impression of the difficulties involved in the data interpretation and of the real-world capabilities of the different instruments for such applications."

As they prepared to leave Stevens, students drafted reports and presented their research findings and conclusions to CSR researchers and Department of Homeland Security officials. Outstanding reports will be selected by DHS officials for next year's annual Homeland Security Summit for presentation by student representatives to the community.

"We were very impressed with the caliber of the reports and the ability of these students to digest fundamental concepts in signal and image processing," said UM Engineering Professor Negahdaripour.

"Our undergraduate students will take back invaluable experiences that they should be able to apply to their studies far beyond this summer."

Stevens Institute of Technology was in 2008 named by the US Department of Homeland Security as one of five national Centers of Excellence and was selected to lead a national research effort to address Port Security.

Stevens was one of 11 universities to partner with the DHS in its efforts. The Department's partners serve as important team members for conducting multi-disciplinary research and creating innovative learning environments for critical homeland security missions.

The Center for Secure and Resilient Maritime Commerce (CSR), along with the University of Hawaii's National Center for Islands, Maritime, and Extreme Environments Security (CIMES), are the US Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) National Center of Excellence for Maritime, Island and Extreme/Remote Environment Security.

The two Centers have parallel objectives and complementary expertise and their close coordination enhances the capabilities of each. The Center for Secure and Resilient Maritime Commerce at Stevens, focuses on sensors, modeling and analysis to improve maritime domain awareness. The center also addresses the question: can a marine transportation system be designed for the United States that is resilient to man-made and natural threats.

Tweet

Related Links Stevens Institute of Technology University of Miami's Rosenstiel School Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters A world of storm and tempest When the Earth Quakes