Opportunities and Issues in Homeland Security

Homeland security has become a driving need for the US government, for our transportation infrastructure, for industrial concerns, and even for private citizens. The opportunities for research, development, and application of materials and processes to improve homeland security are extensive. However, the diffi culties in identifying the right insertion points and the logistics of working with uncertain security constraints may limit access to these opportunities. This session is intended to articulate and discuss these issues.

SCHEDULED PRESENTATIONS

Fifty Years of Defending the Nation at Home and Abroad
Presented by: Alton D. Romig, Jr.,Sandia National Laboratories

Since WW II, US Department of Energy laboratories have played key roles in defending our nation. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) laboratories (Sandia, Los Alamos, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories) were scientific and technical cornerstones of the US success in prevailing during the Cold War. Recently these labs have been major players in the nation’s efforts to combat terrorism and secure our homeland. This lecture will present unclassified activities within the NNSA laboratories, especially Sandia. Laboratory technology in the Afghanistan theater has enabled locating, tracking, and incapacitating Taliban and Al Qaeda facilities and forces. At home, technology has been deployed to detect chem-bio agents. Other technologies have been developed to mitigate these agents in the event of their use. For example, working with the US Postal Service, Sandia deployed technology to decontaminate mail in Washington, DC, and a Sandia-developed foam was used to treat several facilities contaminated with anthrax.

Development of the Fortress/067/Door – Cockpit Security
Presented by: David R. Williams, Alcoa

Alcoa has been an historic leader in the development and processing of aerospace metallics, primarily aluminum, from the beginning of manned fl ight through the current generation of commercial and military aircraft and space vehicles. The presentation will provide an overview of how Alcoa has continued to expand its global materials development, concurrent design, test and characterization and advanced manufacturing capabilities through both acquisition and internal growth. The talk will further discuss how Alcoa has brought those capabilities to bear on the critical issue of domestic security, and the new markets and new opportunities that Alcoa is pursuing and developing. The talk will concentrate on a specifi c example: the development of the Fortress//067/ door, a reinforced fl ight deck door for the commercial aerospace industry. It will explore the product development challenges and issues, and the organizational challenges Alcoa faced including: a market in which Alcoa had not participated; new customers; government regulatory requirements; business unit sponsorship; signifi cant time constraints; and, resources and capabilities that were diverse, scattered, and unaccustomed to working together.

The Role of Universities in Homeland Defense
Presented by: Jim Williams, Ohio State University

The events of September 11, 2001 have created a heightened interest and need for innovative ways to protect the people of the US and, concurrently, minimize the degree to which their personal freedom is compromised. Achieving these two objectives simultaneously will require true innovation because new approaches to achieving security will be necessary. This begs the question, how will we meet his challenge and where will this innovation originate? A possibility is that a and major source of non-aligned technical and scientifi c talent is represented by faculty students in the research universities of this country. Engaging this talent pool in a productive manner to achieve the desired innovation creates some interesting challenges, many of which are non-technical. Included will be handling intellectual properties, restriction on access to sensitive data and information and the multi-national character of the talent pool at all universities. This talk will describe some of these challenges and offer some suggestions regarding ways to proceed.

Also scheduled to present:

Warren Schultz, US Navy Research Laboratory

and

Lewis E. Sloter, US Department of Defense