 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
         |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| navigate: home: magazine: fall 2003: article | |
| Confronting Terrorism Internationally renowned expert trains professionals to protect buildings from terrorism, other hazards By Karen L. Trimbath | |||||||
|
A terrorist needs to be successful once to cause a problem. Design professionals responsible for protecting buildings and their contents against explosive attacks must be successful 100 percent of the time—or else risk the loss of lives, according to Dr. Theodor Krauthammer, director of Penn State’s Protective Technology Center and a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “Today, the issue of abnormal loading on a building during a terrorist attack is a part of everyday life. This issue directly impacts public safety,” he said. “The key is knowledge—what exists and what can be done regarding threats ranging from simple to complex.” In more than 33 years as a professional engineer, teacher and researcher, Krauthammer has dedicated himself to researching the most effective protective design techniques and sharing his findings with practicing professionals. He has been cited widely by the news media since the events of September 11. Each year, he also teaches a weeklong course at Penn State titled Modern Protective Structures. The course presents the latest analysis and design techniques. This year’s course gave 51 attendees—engineers, architects and safety and security managers—practical background information on performance and design requirements for making buildings strong enough to withstand an attack and to protect the people inside. The curriculum was intended to present the entire problem from understanding the nature of threats to analysis and design. Krauthammer has taught the course for the University since 1995 and internationally since 1989. The course is an excellent example of outreach education that improves national security, Dr. David Wormley, dean of the College of Engineering, said. He also said the Protective Technology Center and the College of Engineering embody Penn State’s mission of teaching, research and outreach through such educational activities. “This course is one of our major activities and thrusts in the area of homeland security,” Wormley added. “It has the reputation of being one of the very best courses on protective design in this country and is a very strong program. It’s an outstanding example of how we bring the latest research results to the professionals who can use them.” A MULTILAYERED APPROACH
The issues of antiterrorism and protection needs have been around for a long time, and historical documents from 2,000 years ago mention them, Krauthammer told course participants. The difference between then and now, he added, lies “in the magnitude of the consequences. In the old days, terrorists focused on assassinating individual government and military targets. In modern times, terrorist threats have become more highly energetic. They inflict attacks with more severe consequences on society, including the disruption of normal life and serious economic damage.”
Civilian attacks are one characteristic of modern terrorism. Although data from the U.S. Department of State shows a declining number of attacks over the last 20 years, total yearly incidents (both domestically and internationally) still number in the hundreds, and most attacked facilities are businesses, because they are easier targets.
Participants learned that blast-resistant design is the last resort for protection, after all other measures fail. The reason is that building design is just one component of protection, according to Krauthammer. He told attendees to picture “an onion with many layers, each of which represents an aspect of protection. The strategy must be to keep the attack away from the intended target. It’s more effective. Obviously, you must prevent the plane hijacking. You must insist on a team approach with law enforcement and surveillance becoming part of the layers.”
Course participants were given information on the basis of protective technology and how the Protective Technology Center’s recommendations are developed. They studied advanced research and development topics, including fortification science and technology, analysis and design, industrial explosive safety, antiterrorist design, hazard sources, physical security and blast damage assessment. They also divided up into teams to complete exercises, a process that compelled them to communicate with practitioners of other disciplines. Much of their work was completed using computers and through discussion.
Two guest lecturers contributed their expertise. Frederick Holden of QinetiQ, a science and technology company in the United Kingdom, presented an overview of British testing programs in which the effects of terrorist weapons were evaluated on different protective systems. David Houghton, senior principal of Myers, Houghton Partners, a structural engineering firm in Long Beach, Calif., discussed a program to assess the progressive collapse of multistory buildings, with a special emphasis on steel frames. This work was sponsored by the General Services Administration.
Attendees interviewed for this article said they heard about the course from colleagues and the Penn State Web site. Many of them said they enrolled because they wanted to learn more about blast protection and because they have an increased interest in protective design since the September 11 terrorist attacks. They also cited Krauthammer’s international reputation as a specialist in the study of the survivability and fragility aspects of facilities subjected to blast, shock and impact.
“A lot of companies will be focusing on this topic as our design concerns shift to a civilian focus,” Kirby Hartle said. He and Meredith Ross, both structural engineers with HSMM Inc., a firm in Washington, D.C., signed up for the course because it was recommended by a colleague.
Ahmad Othman, a civil and structural engineer with Ihsan Team Consultants of Malaysia, said he is concerned with designing safe buildings. One of his clients is the Defence Ministry of Malaysia. “I want to enhance my knowledge of this field,” he said. “It’s been a topic of interest to many parties since September 11.”
“I’m here to get a well-rounded knowledge of blast-related issues. Dr. Krauthammer is probably the best in his field,” Benjamin Wisniewski, Penn State alumnus (’90 and ’00), said. A structural engineer with LZA Technology in New York City, he attended with several of his colleagues.
Still others hoped to apply their new knowledge to other fields, like Anastasio Santos of Madrid, Spain. He teaches competencies in explosives and mine safety at the Mining School Laboratoria Oficial I. Madariaga. “I want to apply the knowledge gained in this course to other types of explosions, such as accidents in coal mining or possibly accident prevention within the Spanish nuclear industry,” he said.
After the course ended, many of these participants will continue to keep in touch with Krauthammer, joining an international community of like-minded professionals who welcome new opinions and questions. This open approach suits Krauthammer just fine.
“There’s a very significant need for this kind of communication,” he said. “I feel it’s important to provide these kinds of services.” PROTECTIVE TECHNOLOGY CENTER
Located at a Penn State facility in Cato Park, State College, the Protective Technology Center is the largest academic center of its type in the United States. It was established in August 2000 in cooperation with the U.S. Army Engineering Research and Development Center. The Army contract is administered through Penn State’s Marine Corps Research University, a research partner for the U.S. Marine Corps.
The center’s mission is to develop methods that ensure the safety of people and facilities under terrorist bomb attack. It mobilizes and leads the U.S. academic community in establishing comprehensive research and development activities in protective science and technology. This work helps ensure the safety of people and facilities during explosions and other threats. The center also participates in technical activities with government organizations, universities and industry in the United States and 19 other countries.
Krauthammer and Dr. Thomas Donnellan, senior scientist with Penn State’s Applied Research Laboratory, are co-primary investigators for a program sponsored by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. This program includes the formation of a consortium of six universities, led by Penn State, to support the agency through a multiyear task order contract. The other universities are the University of California at San Diego, University of Florida, New Mexico Tech, Florida A&M University and North Carolina A&T University.
Outreach—through education, training and advising activities—is an important component of the center’s mission. It also is a philosophical conviction for Krauthammer. That is why the curriculum of the Modern Protective Structures course is closely intertwined with the research he and his colleagues perform at the center, which is a nonvested academic entity offering an independent source of information.
“We have to make sure that professionals have access to the latest technologies in order to serve and protect society,” Krauthammer said. “We can’t do this solely by teaching students. We have to make sure professionals practicing in the field can improve and maintain their skills.”
In keeping with his dedication to teaching, last fall he introduced a new graduate-level course in civil engineering: Introduction to Protective Structures (CE598D).
The center’s technical and scientific staff includes more than 30 engineers and scientists with advanced academic degrees in aerospace engineering, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, mechanics and structural engineering. They are guided by Krauthammer, who has more than 30 years of engineering and scientific experience in the area of physical security, blast, shock and impact effects mitigation.
The Protective Technology Center is recognized by the Blast Mitigation Action Group. Its research has been supported by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the National Science Foundation, NATO, the U.S. Army and Marine Corps and various engineering and industrial organizations worldwide.
More information about the Protective Technology Center is online at http://www.ptc.psu.edu.
An outreach program of the Protective Technology Center and the College of Engineering | ||||||
| |||||||
|
HOMELAND SECURITY BRIEF | Smart plants Penn State scientists are laying the groundwork for genetically engineering plants that can detect and signal the presence of many harmful chemical or biological agents. “Plants make good sentinels, because they can’t run away,” Dr. Jack Schultz, a chemical ecologist and professor of entomology in the College of Agricultural Sciences, said. “Because they are rooted in their environment, plants must respond dynamically to environmental changes.” Schultz and Dr. Ramesh Raina, a biologist at Syracuse University (formerly with Penn State’s Eberly College of Science), are using DNA technology to fuse a plant’s sensing and response systems to particular proteins in hopes of developing plants that respond to all environmental stimuli in a predetermined and visual way. “When our work is complete,” said Raina, “we’ll have a ‘kit’ of several hundred plant lines—each that will sense different things, but will respond the same way. In this case, if they sense an environmental stimulus, they will fluoresce, or glow, green.” The plants will have several possible uses. They might be able to sense and warn of the presence of chemical warfare agents or animal pathogens, such as anthrax. Other plants might be designed to detect and signal the presence of explosives in soil, which would aid in locating and removing land mines. The technology also holds promise for agriculture, Schultz said. If researchers can learn more about how plants sense and respond to insects, diseases, poor soils, drought and other environmental challenges, they may be able to develop plants that can “tell” them where and when these problems exist. “This work has enormous implications for precision agriculture. Imagine a tractor with a sensor on the front that picks up plants’ chemical signals as it crosses the field,” Schultz explained. “If the sensor detects plant response to Colorado potato beetle in one part of the field, it directs pesticide spray only to that area, while leaving the rest of the field untouched.” |
||||||
| HOMELAND SECURITY BRIEF | Protecting food Food industry professionals and academics explored the challenges they face in securing the safety of the nation’s food supply at a daylong conference in April. At the Bioterrorism: Protecting the Food Industry conference, there were more than 150 representatives from such companies and organizations as Hershey Foods, Martin’s Potato Chips, McCormick and Company, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and the University of Maryland, among others. The conference covered the adaptations needed to respond to increased security issues and their impact on food manufacturers, suppliers and retailers, farmers and consumers. Ernest Del Bueno Jr., vice president of Global Crisis Management for Rowan & Blewitt, the crisis management consulting firm, delivered the keynote address. The conference also allowed representatives from various groups—food industry, academia and government—to interact in addressing issues and learn more about each other’s perspectives. Organizers said participants came away with useful information on agricultural bioterrorism, food safety and protection, human health issues and crisis management. Sponsored by the College of Agricultural Sciences’ Department of Food Science, the Penn State Food Industry Group and the Keystone Section of the Institute of Food Technologists, the conference was the fourth biannual look at the state and national food industry and the first with the theme of bioterrorism. |
|||||||
