Erie Researchers Studying Radar Security For Great Lakes
Center for eBusiness & Advanced Information Technology President Susan Breon finds that the Great Lakes borders are a weak spot in national security. The agency is looking into whether ships could be effectively tracked on the waterways with low-cost commercial radar.
The first phase of testing will be accomplished by the agency and researchers from Penn State-Behrend and Mercyhurst College with a $50,000 seed grant to see if the radar will work.
Mercyhurst Institute for Intelligence Studies director Robert Heibel will use his contacts as former FBI deputy chief of counterterrorism to figure out which national security agencies could utilize the generated data. Breon’s group and state Sen. Jane Earll (R-Erie) hope that the project will create new jobs in the event a security center or technology cluster is established.
Robert Gray with Penn State-Behrend’s Center for Navigation, Communication, and Information Systems reports that radar testing could take as long as 12 months.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Associated Press (10/09/04) .