The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), under the U.S. Department of Defense, awarded a $1 million grant to Cockrell School of Engineering researchers to help develop faster and more effective relief efforts and recovery times following an attack by a weapon of mass destruction (WMD).
As part of the project, Cockrell School faculty members and students will develop computer models that simulate WMD attacks on our nation’s electric power systems, transportation systems, communication networks and other critical infrastructures. Such WMD strikes could potentially cause power outages, traffic incidents or other major infrastructure problems.
Our nation’s dependence on these networks is unprecedented. The goal of the project is to shed light on how these different types of networks are interconnected and to understand how the nation could better stop the spread of a WMD attack.
Ross Baldick, professor in the Cockrell School’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, will direct the three-year project. Electrical engineering professors Alexis Kwasinski and Sriram Vishwanath, and civil engineering professor Chandra Bhat, will also participate.
Each professor brings a unique combination of individual talents and expertise to create a multidisciplinary project focused on strengthening the defense and response time of computer networks.
Baldick, who specializes in the electric power grid, develops techniques to assess electrical networks’ vulnerabilities. Kwasinski’s research focuses on increasing the reliability of power during disasters.
Bhat, director of the Center for Transportation Research, will use his expertise in travel demand modeling and travel behavior analysis to determine how a WMD attack may impact networks. Vishwanath, of UT Austin’s Wireless Networking and Communications Group, brings expertise in information theory, mathematical modeling and analysis of networks.
In addition to the faculty members, four Ph.D. students from various engineering departments and The University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Computer Science will participate in the project.
DTRA funding will be paid out over a three-year period and has the potential to increase over time. The agency, which is technically the youngest within the Department of Defense, is the United States’ official combat support agency for countering weapons of mass destruction and is focused on WMD training and education.
