WKU helps with Homeland Security
by Tommy Newton
Western Kentucky University’s Applied Physics Institute will be part of two homeland security projects to monitor milk transport systems and to improve the safety of the nation’s railways.
The Kentucky Homeland Security University Consortium, a group of Kentucky colleges and universities, was awarded $9.2 million in federal funds from the Department of Homeland Security.
The Applied Physics Institute has been performing homeland security oriented research and development since its inception in 1994. It has developed and helped to commercialize explosive, chemical agent, and radiological/nuclear detection systems. For information, visit www.wku.edu/Dept/Academic/Ogden/Phyast/API.
The awards were announced in August by The National Institute for Hometown Security in Somerset. U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers made the announcement and was joined by U. S. Department of Homeland Security Under Secretary Charles McQueary, who leads the department’s Science and Technology Directorate.
Milk transport project
WKU and the University of Kentucky were awarded a three-year, $1.5 million research and development project to secure milk transport from farm to processor.
Fred Payne of UK is the principal investigator for the project. Phillip Womble, co-principal investigator of the project and director of API, will lead WKU’s research team.
Industrial collaborators include companies from Kentucky and Tennessee: Alan Wilson Trucking and Slayback Milk Transport (milk hauling); Southern Belle Dairy and Winchester Farms Dairy (milk processors); Bluegrass Tank and Equipment, Starr Stainless, Inc. (milk tank manufacturers); Dairy Farmers of America MidEast Council (dairy producer). Northwest Nuclear, LLC will collaborate in wireless asset tracking development. Balluff, Inc. will support the project with electronic sensors.
The contamination of bulk food poses a high consequence threat to our society. The goal of the proposed research is to develop a wireless security system that will assure the delivery of milk, milk samples and security information from the dairy farm to the dairy plant. A systems approach will be used to identify the critical points for obtaining multi-dimensional security information: security event, time of occurrence, geographic location and identity of truck driver.
The wireless system will be designed to accommodate the future likelihood that dairy herd information must be transported to the dairy plant with the milk. The system will be designed to operate automatically and require minimal or no attention by the milk truck driver. A demonstration system will be tested in collaboration with farms and dairy plants.
Project developments will include a standard data collection protocol that is cost effective, compatible with existing milk transport infrastructure, and has the support of the dairy farmers, milk haulers, and processors. The developed electronic system will be commercialized by presenting it to the collaborating dairy tank manufacturers, sensor manufactures and other interested parties.
The milk transport security protocol may be applicable to other bulk food transport situations both nationally and internationally. Successful development of this project will add significantly to the national security infrastructure for bulk food transport.
Railway safety project
The Applied Physics Institute and the Institute for Scientific Research, Inc. (ISR) received a one-year, $752,423 research and development project to improve the safety of the nation’s railways.
The project “Rail Tank Car Leakage Detection System (RLEAKS)” is aimed to develop a system that can detect and locate pinhole leaks in rail car containment vessels and provide alerts to railroad operators and security personnel. Pressurized rail tank cars transport and distribute large volumes of volatile liquids and gases throughout the nation each day, much of which is hazardous and/or flammable.
RLEAKS will be a low-cost, distributed wireless network of acoustic sensors that incorporates intelligent location decision-making to monitor leaks, while minimizing false alarms and remaining non-intrusive to railroad operation.
“We are looking forward to working with ISR on this project to protect critical infrastructure in the United States,” said Phillip Womble, director of API and principal investigator of the project. “We appreciate the leadership of Congressman Hal Rogers in developing the National Institute for Hometown Security and allowing us to participate in this program.”
The main topics to be addressed in the RLEAKS project include: acoustic sensor adequacy with respect to environment, sensitivity, precision, line-of-sight limitations, power, weight, and volume; high-frequency sampling hardware and software; algorithms for leak spectral analyses and isolation, first order leak detection, false alarm prevention, and leak localization; integrated wireless network capability; and ground control station for data fusion, visualization and storage, as well as wireless network management.
A complete system demonstration to exhibit the capabilities and application of the sensor network will be conducted at the project’s conclusion.
“We are honored to be selected for the award,” said Alex Barzilov, associate director of API and co-principal investigator of RLEAKS project. “We are excited to develop and test cutting edge scientific approaches for critical infrastructure protection.”
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