Some Cutting-Edge Security Research

October / November 2009 By: Tom Michael Volume 7 Number 5

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When federal agencies charged with keeping America safe, such as the Department of Homeland Security or the National Nuclear Security Administration, need new technologies to thwart terrorists or mitigate the ravages of a massive flood, the national laboratories are usually among the first places they look.

But if it weren't for the NNSA's Office of Laboratory Directed Research and Development, the labs might not have as much to deliver. Created by Congress in 1991 to fund cutting-edge research and development, LDRD has become a "scientific success story," according to Jamileh Soudah, director of the NNSA's Office of Institutional and Joint Programs.

Soudah recently welcomed scientific leaders from NNSA, the Department of Energy other government agencies and the private sector to a symposium in Washington, where LDRD collaborators showcased their work.

"The threats to our national security from acts of terrorism, global economic pressures, and also the consequences of environmental changes are growing at an alarming rate," Soudah said. "The resulting potential disruptions to our social and economic lives pose serious challenges not only to this nation, but to the international community, as well. The NNSA and its national security laboratories have been increasingly called upon to devote their scientific and technological capabilities to help address issues that are not limited solely to the historic nuclear weapons mission."

Here are a few of the interesting technological advances featured at the day-long symposium:

—€ Optimization and Control Theory for Smart Grids
Michael Chertkov of Los Alamos National Laboratory described the U.S. power grid as the "the greatest engineering achievement of the 20th century, but also warned that it "will require a smart revolution in the 21st century." To that end, Chertkov and his colleagues at LANL are developing new algorithms to develop the best possible design of next-generation power transmission and distribution.

"At its core, the smart grid is the modernization of our existing power systems through improvements in efficiency, increased robustness and resiliency, integration of time-variable renewable generation, and reduction of environmental impacts," Chertkov said. "The focus of most commercial entities has been on development of hardware such as smart meters and green technologies. But with the exception of a handful of academic researchers, there has been limited research on optimization, control and more broadly the information science required to effectively utilize this hardware. Our proposal targets development of the basic information science that will effectively bridge that gap."

—€ Perimeter Security
Paul J. De Rego, assistant deputy chief of staff for logistics, installations and mission support at the Kansas City Plant, explained that securing perimeters has "become a formidable challenge as terrorists commonly blend into the unsuspecting scenery." That's why KCP is integrating visual perception mechanisms, behavioral cues and low-power microwave sensors aimed at standoff identification of covert human threats near a security perimeter.
"Potential threats are initially identified by motion detection and then tracked in 3D using stereo infrared imagery. Each tracked target is then assessed as a low, medium or high threat level by a fuzzy interference engine algorithm using range, range date, trajectory path and physical size dimension as inputs," De Rego said.

—€ Protecting Our Space Enterprise
Jeffrey Bloch, a situational awareness program manager at Los Alamos National Laboratory, pointed out that over the past few decades, the U.S. has become heavily reliant on satellites for a wide range of information dissemination and data collection in the commercial, civilian, military and scientific realms.
"However, our ability to monitor and protect these systems from from natural hazards and other threats such as a growing space debris population has not kept pace with the risks and consequences of a major loss," he said.
Bloch said LANL's innovative LDRD research "advances our ability to promote spaceflight safety in terms of forecasting and mitigating the adverse affects of the space environment on our vital space systems and promoting space flight safety by providing more cost-effective ubiquitous optical solutions to space surveillance."