Northeastern Voice

Northeastern to lead Homeland Security Center of Excellence

Michael Silevitch

After a highly competitive selection process Northeastern is the first university in Massachusetts and one of only 11 universities nationwide to win a Centers of Excellence grant from the Department of Homeland Security. 

The new center will be called ALERT (Awareness and Localization of Explosives-Related Threats). 

The ALERT research program led by Northeastern is driven by the needs facing homeland security today, such as the ultra-reliable screening of passengers and cargo, or the mitigation of explosive blasts so that damage to a building is minimized. Examples of ALERT’s cutting-edge projects include the manufacture and study of new improvised explosives, detection at long-range (football field distance or greater) using multiple methods like infrared or radar, the study of “human factors” — how humans interact with technology — and neutralization of explosive devices without using traditional methods like controlled detonation.

With the collaboration of its industrial and national laboratory partners, ALERT will also focus on transitioning research into products such as a multi-mode suicide bomber detection system. 

The ALERT educational program, led by Northeastern partner University of Rhode Island (URI), will include pre-college, undergraduate, graduate and career professional components.  A response advisory board will work with both Northeastern and URI to plan workshops and short courses to review new threat detection and mitigation technologies for first responders such as the Secret Service, Transportation Security Administration, police, firefighters and EMTs.

University President Joseph Aoun praised professor Michael Silevitch and the team of researchers who won the grant.

“This grant will support the work of a visionary group who exemplify our university’s leadership in fundamental and translational research,” Aoun said. “Their work is vital to our national security, and we recognize the import of the confidence the Department of Homeland Security has placed in us.”

Silevitch, who has more than 20 years of experience leading government-funded research centers, is also director of Northeastern’s Bernard M. Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems (Gordon-CenSSIS), a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center that focuses on the broader issues of detecting hidden objects. 

Silevitch said the Homeland Security Center of Excellence is the next step in a natural progression of the engineering and technological expertise that has been refined at Gordon-CenSSIS and will continue at ALERT.  “Preventing terrorist attacks is perhaps our foremost national security challenge,” he said, “and we are confident our research will lead to methods to prevent and mitigate any such attacks.”  

The grant is the second significant award that Silevitch and his team have received within the last two years. In 2006, Bernard M. Gordon, founder of Analogic Corp., and his wife Sophia, donated $20 million to Northeastern to rename Gordon-CenSSIS and establish the Gordon Engineering Leadership Program, a graduate offering through the College of Engineering that provides an innovative model for training engineering leaders.

As part of the grant, from the Department of Homeland Security, Northeastern will receive $10 million over the next four years.  An additional $1.6 million in funding from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s John Adams Innovation Institute will be used to foster industry collaboration between ALERT and local companies such as Analogic Corp., Raytheon and Textron Systems.

U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy lauded Northeastern for winning the funding.  “I commend Northeastern for receiving this impressive grant.  I’m confident the center will produce the expertise in disaster prevention and response that our nation urgently needs and it’s gratifying that the Department of Homeland Security agrees.”

Said U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry: “Northeastern is developing new and innovative ways to protect America.  This historic opportunity to research and develop detection and high explosives technologies will help more effectively address 21st century threats and protect our nation.”  

Juliette Kayyem, the undersecretary of homeland security for Massachusetts, acknowledged Northeastern University as the first Massachusetts institution to win a Centers of Excellence grant, and noted the importance of the undertaking.

“This represents a tremendous opportunity, not only for Northeastern, but for the state. We look forward to working with Northeastern University and all its partners as they advance a project that will focus the Commonwealth's academic excellence on important public safety needs.”

Mark Russell, vice president of engineering at Raytheon’s Integrated Defense Systems, said the company is “pleased to contribute its expertise to the team in conducting research and technology development for effective detection, mitigation and response to existing and future explosives related threats facing our country.

"This new Center of Excellence is an important source for training our future technology leaders in partnership with Northeastern University and the team,” he said.

With the grant, researchers are now equipped to discover technologies for detection, mitigation and response, three important components to make the world a safer place, said Silevitch.

“This grant is only the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “Our efforts to discover new techniques on behalf of homeland security will continue to grow, and in the process, new opportunities for industry will also emerge.”

David Luzzi, dean of  engineering, sees the grant as embodying the university’s and the college’s goals.

The new center, he said, “is the latest example of Northeastern’s momentum, underpinning one of the College of Engineering’s five strategic research priorities: new technologies for national security, infrastructure, energy efficiency, the environment, and human health and well-being.”