ISE Professor Receives $441,000 Grant to Improve Homeland Security on Inland Waterways
October 16, 2006
Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) Professor Mingzhou Jin is the Principal Investigator for a $441,000 grant from the United States Department of Homeland Security. The project is a jointed effort between Mississippi State University (MSU) and the Oak Ridge National Lab. ISE Professors John Usher and Royce Bowden, Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor William McAnally, and Michael Parsons of the Institute for Clean Energy Technology are also involved with the project.
The objective of the research program is to develop and field test a prototype system that provides more accurate, uniform, and timely data on hazardous cargo movements by barges, especially those certified as Certain Dangerous Cargo (CDC). The proposed system is expected to automatically track and monitor barges with CDC and communicate the real-time information to a data server. An information fusion system will be developed to analyze the collected real-time data and other information, identify any potential security threats, and visually display locations and routes of suspicious barges. The system will benefit the homeland security community, first responders, local law enforcement personnel, and businesses by providing timely and accurate barge information to make quick and effective decisions in disasters involving CDC movement on the inland waterway. ISE undergraduate and graduate students will be an integral part of the research.
Contact Mingzhou Jin at (662) 325-3923 for additional information.