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Tip
Sheet: Science & Technology Tip sheets highlight timely news and events at Washington University in St. Louis. For more information on any of the stories below or for assistance in arranging interviews, please see the contact information listed with each story. For comments on the Science & Technology news tips service, please contact the editor, Tony Fitzpatrick at (314) 935-5272 or tony_fitzpatrick@aismail.wustl.edu. New Washington University center formed to protect nation Media assistance: Tony Fitzpatrick - (314) 935-5272 Source: Ronald Indeck's Web page Source: Joseph O'Sullivan's Web page Source: Robert Pless' Web page Related: Record profile on Ron Indeck [St. Louis, Mo., September 2002] - The Center for Security Technologies (CST) at Washington University in St. Louis has been founded to help address our country's need to protect its people, infrastructures and information from threats to security.
Involving more than 30 faculty members from a variety of disciplines, the new center is focusing on scientific and engineering aspects of the development of advanced security systems. The CST's director is Ronald S. Indeck, Ph.D., the Das Family Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering. Engineering faculty from the Departments of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Systems Science and Mathematics, as well as the Center for the Application of Information Technology, are playing an active role in the new center. University faculty from the disciplines of chemistry, earth and planetary science, political science, law and social work also are involved in CST. "Security systems will continue to become more sophisticated over time, as will methods to defeat them," Indeck said. "Our new center provides the long-term view that is necessary to anticipate future threats and to make progress in security system design and development." The CST is a natural extension of research already in place at the University. A partial list of pertinent research projects -- either completed or in progress -- includes target recognition; fingerprint and face recognition; voice recognition; Internet security; and improved methods for complex searching of massive databases for intelligence applications. Research of CST participants already has applicability to important problems faced by individuals, government and industry. Among them are object verification and recognition; data mining of massive text and image databases; fraud of credit cards, currency and other objects ;and security, including security of buildings and facilities, of societal infrastructures, of information and information systems, and of communications. Indeck pointed out that any system designed to protect security in our democratic society must face up to the often conflicting needs of privacy and security. "We recognize that technology raises important questions of a legal and social nature," he said. "We are incorporating issues of privacy and public policy directly, early in the design process, in an effort to achieve seemingly contradictory goals of security and privacy.” Indeck said researchers expect to enable new industries with their work and collaborate with government and corporations on security projects. The center's members are confident that the synergy created by combining their talents and knowledge will continue to lead to important breakthroughs in security technologies. "The Center for Security Technologies is positioned to be the foremost center focused on security,” Indeck said. "We have enormous leverage to become an exciting forum for new ideas and collaboration.” The Center for Security Technologies has organized its areas of strength into these categories: sensors; advanced electronic systems; signal and image processing; recognition theory and systems vision for security; distributed and mobile systems; network and information security; l detection, isolation, and accommodation of faults; and law, economics and public policy. For each of CST's thrusts, a team of faculty experts has been assembled. Under the guidance of a team leader, each team will combine its talents to work toward developing security technologies in its specific area. The areas of expertise are being used in the following engineering demonstration testbeds. All have high-potential commercial value to important security systems. These areas are: • biometrics and physics-based recognition systems; • network of video cameras; • fast searching of massive databases; • high-speed network security; and • security of the food and water supply. |
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