$441,000 grant approved for ISE research at MSU
November 7, 2006
The Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) Department at Mississippi State University is being awarded a $441,000 grant to fund research on a new security prototype system for barge networks. The grant was sponsored through the United States Department of Homeland Security to help develop monitoring systems for hazardous cargo movement on barges.
The research is a joint effort between MSU’s ISE department and the Oak Ridge National Lab. The principal investigator for the project is Dr. Mingzhou Jin, assistant professor for ISE. Other MSU faculty heading up the project include: ISE professors John Usher and Royce Bowden, Civil and Environmental Engineering professor William McAnally and Michael Parsons of the Institute for Clean Energy Technology, also located on the MSU campus.
The main 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 transported by barges, namely those classified as Certain Dangerous Cargo (CDC). The proposed system is expected to automatically track and relay real-time information on conditions and location of the CDC material to data servers. The proposed system will allow monitoring of on-board materials and other real-time information. Identify potential security threats and visually display locations and routes of suspicious barges. The new system will benefit the homeland security community, first responders, local law enforcement, and businesses by providing timely and accurate barge information, enabling quick and effective decision making in disasters involving CDC movement on inland waterways.
ISE graduate and undergraduate students will be integrated into portions of the research and development of the new information fusion system. The Oak Ridge National Lab my also provide internships to involved students.