West Virginia University has joined an international group of universities, industry, government partners, think tanks and others that will advance research and training on border security issues.

The Center of Excellence for Border Security and Immigration, led by the University of Arizona, is funded by the Department of Homeland Security, and includes law enforcement, local government and agencies in the U.S, Canada and Mexico with interests in securing international borders. The Department of Homeland Security has allocated $15 million over six years to the Center.

Securing our borders is of utmost importance to the safety of our nation.By forming this partnership, the path to fixing our broken borders is taking a giant step forward,said Senator Robert C. Byrd, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.I am proud the university is being called upon to bring its expertise in biometrics technologies and unmanned aerial vehicle-based sensor networks to help solve one of our nation’s top national security issues.

WVU is contributing two of its key assets to the Center: The WVU Center for Advanced Research in Autonomous Technologies (CARAT) and WVU s National Science Foundation Center for Identification Technology Research (CITeR).

WVUs work with the Center for Excellence for Border Security and Immigration, coupled with our partnership with the FBI , will bring together the nations best minds to address tough national security issues,said WVU President Mike Garrison.

CARAT, led by WVU Professors of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Mridul Gautam and Marcello R. Napolitano, will collaborate with the University of Arizona in the evaluation of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based sensor networks for enhanced surveillance and situational awareness. CARAT will work closely with partners in the proposed collaborative effort to design protocols which will lead to autonomous environments and minimization of need for human intervention.

According to Gautam, CARAT will aim to establish a prototype Autonomous AERial Network (AERNet) for border surveillance.The development of AERNeta network of heterogeneous small and inexpensive UAVs, with state-of-the-art perception, communication, and cooperative capabilitiescould provide powerful tools for improving national security,he said. UAVs and the autonomous aerial network will be designed, and developed by WVU .

Gautam said AERNet, comprised of autonomous small UAVs, could be deployed as part of a larger and more comprehensive border surveillance system. It will provide agencies such as the Customs and Border Protection, US Coast Guard, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Transportation Security Administration, Citizenship and Immigration Services, Drug Enforcement Agency, and other law enforcement entities with the capability to improve the security of our nations borders without impeding the flow of commerce and travelers. AERNet will allow real-time information connection with law-enforcement databases.

WVUs National Science Foundation Center (NSF) for Identification Technology Research (CITeR), led by Professors Lawrence Hornak and Bojan Cukic, will lend its extensive research capabilities in biometrics and identity management to the Center. WVU serves as the lead site for CITeR, the only NSF Research Center focusing on the rapidly growing area of Biometric Identification Technology. The University of Arizona is an NSF Site of CITeR addressing the area of human credibility assessment.

WVUs leadership in CITeR recently enabled a new partnership between WVU and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI partnership leverages the Universitys academic research and knowledge in the biometric identification arena and identifies WVU as the academic arm of the FBI s Biometric Center of Excellence.

The Center of Excellence for Border Security and Immigration has identified five key areas of research that it will address over the six-year term of the Homeland Security contract. They are:

Surveillance, Screening, Data Fusion and Situational Awareness

Population Dynamics, Immigration Administration and Immigration Enforcement

Operational Analysis, Command, Control and Communications

Immigration Policy, Civic Administration, and Citizenship

Border Risk Management and International Governance

The group will create education and training programs to develop science, technology and management approaches to make agents more effective and to prepare the next generation of border security professionals. It will also provide tools and practices that can be delivered rapidly to end users. The University of Arizona will lead the research functions of the Center and the University of Texas at El Paso will lead its educational components of the Center.