2008 Woodie Awards
Prof to research national security threat prevention
Lucia Allen
Issue date: 3/20/08 Section: News
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Michael Silevitch, an engineering professor who is now co-director for awareness and localization of explosive threats, said the research will be co-led by Northeastern and the University of Rhode Island.
"We acquired this grant through a competitive proposal process, with about 60 other schools submitting concept papers," Silevitch said.
Concept papers were not required, but were encouraged for initial feedback, he said. It was filtered down to a few proposals, and sites were visited, he said.
There are a number of other university partners, Silevitch said, and they have essentially built upon the existing Gordon center.
"How do we, as a country, deal and respond to terrorist threats that include terrorist suicide bombers, and school bomb threats," Silevitch said. "In addition to what we're doing in the field of homeland security, we need a component of academic research. We're looking at ways to develop a basic research method to detect, mitigate and respond to explosive-related terrorist threats."
It is long range research, lasting five to 10 years, with the hope of near-term results, Silevitch said. The researchers are hoping to see products within the next two to three years.
"[We want] breakthrough science and engineering, not just evolutionary," Silevitch said. "We hope to keep plugging away until … we make many breakthroughs."
Silevitch said the need for this research is a concern with dealing with potential terrorist threats in the United States.
Raytheon Amphitheatre is an example of the extensive collaboration between Northeastern and the defense industry, Silevitch said.
"We use those links and tune them toward dealing with these potential explosive-related terrorist threats. Analogic, Textron and roughly about 15 other companies would work collaboratively. We have support from the CommonWealth of Massachusetts to provide [the industry] with any funding to help us with this research," Silevitch said.
David Schmitt, a Northeastern professor of political science, said the magnitude of this research is important.
"It is directly related to the welfare of the country and the broader fight against terrorism," Schmitt said.
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