Testimony of Dr.
Hratch G. Semerjian National
before the Subcommittee
on Disaster Prevention and Prediction "Scientific Research in Support of Homeland Security" June 8, 2005 Introduction Chairman DeMint and Members of the Committee, I am Hratch Semerjian, acting Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), part of the Technology Administration of the Department of Commerce. Thank you for this opportunity to testify about the contributions of NIST to homeland security. In accomplishing this and all parts of its mission, NIST works in many ways with companies, universities, and other government agencies to help protect our nation against terrorism. Since World War II, our nation's greatest resources for homeland and national security have been a strong economy and a technological edge based on innovation. NIST has the unique mission of providing the measurements and standards infrastructure that the private sector, universities, and government agencies need to develop new technologies, products and services, conduct research, and effectively carry out their responsibilities. NIST measurements and standards and our support of new technologies have strengthened our economy and enabled the development and effective deployment of new homeland security technologies. NIST's long and productive history of supporting
homeland and national security efforts began shortly after its
founding as the National Bureau of Standards. Partly in response to the NIST currently has about 100 programs, supported by approximately $60 million in direct appropriations augmented by significant funding support from other agencies. This research is coordinated with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2003 between former Under Secretary for Technology, Phillip Bond, and Under Secretary for Science and Technology at DHS, Charles McQueary. In addition, other long standing relationships with the Department of Justice, the State Department, the National Security Agency, and the Office of Management and Budget also ensure that NIST's research is sufficiently coordinated. NIST's homeland security research spans the following areas:
This afternoon I would like to describe NIST's response to 9/11, and then share just a few examples of other NIST research supporting homeland security. NIST response to 9/11 and the As I previously stated NIST responses to the terrorist attacks of 2001
were swift. Shortly after September 11, 2001, NIST building and fire experts
joined teams of scientists and engineers in assessment of how the Pentagon as
well as the After the October 2001 bioterrorist attacks, NIST worked with federal
agencies and the private sector to ensure that commercial radiation
facilities could effectively sterilize When the The collapse of
The investigation was conducted with $16 million in funding by the U.S. Congress from an emergency supplemental appropriation and transferred to NIST from FEMA. It builds on the findings and recommendations of an earlier WTC building performance study conducted jointly by FEMA and the American Society of Civil Engineers. The investigation's analysis, which is the most detailed examination of a building failure ever conducted, established the probable sequences for the collapse of each tower:
Along with this analysis, NIST released in April drafts of 15 reports from three projects of the investigation:
Recommendations for improvements to building and fire codes, standards and practices derived from these and the other five projects in the investigation will be released for public comment later this month, along with the draft of the final investigation report and drafts of 27 reports from the remaining five projects. Additional Homeland Security Research NIST, with its diverse research portfolio is also supporting the nation's homeland security efforts in a number of ways that are not directly related to the attacks of 9/11. Cybersecurity Cybersecurity work at NIST plays a key role in addressing the urgent need to improve the cybersecurity posture of the Nation, and in particular that of the Federal government. Some examples of recent and continuing NIST work in this field are:
Additionally, NIST's Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership is beginning its outreach activities to small and medium sized manufacturers by providing them guidance with vulnerability assessments, business continuity, and supply chain implications. Biometrics As part of its fulfillment of the Patriot Act, NIST conducted the
Fingerprint Vendor Technology Evaluation in 2003. The eighteen competing
companies used 34 different fingerprint matching systems. The evaluation,
which was based on fingerprint data from a variety of The evaluation demonstrated the significance of fingerprint quality as well as the number of fingers used. (The matching accuracy using four fingers was better than the accuracy using only two fingers, which in turn was better than single-finger matching.) The test also showed that the most accurate fingerprint systems perform better than the most accurate facial recognition systems, even when using only a single fingerprint. NIST's key Patriot Act recommendations included in the report to Congress titled "Use of Technology Standards and Interoperable Databases with Machine-Readable, Tamper-Resistant Travel Documents" dated February 2003:
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005, provided an increase of $2.0 million to NIST's biometric program. This new funding will allow NIST to begin testing the accuracy of multimodal systems, develop guidelines for testing fingerprint segmentation methods, and determining the influence of multiple images on the accuracy of facial biometrics. Radiation detectors NIST, in cooperation with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), has an extensive program to develop and support standards for the radiation detectors used by first responders and for other homeland security applications. The standards will help first responders and government agencies make better use of existing equipment and acquire the right equipment for emergency response, and they will encourage manufacturers to better design instruments and represent their specifications to agency and responder buyers. This program includes:
As an example of the application of the new standards, NIST recently tested 31 commercial detectors, including hand-held survey meters, pagers, and radionuclide identifiers. Federal, state, and local agencies are using such instruments as part of homeland security-related efforts to detect and identify radioactive materials. The tests determined that portable radiation detectors generally perform well against the new consensus standards but provided inaccurate readings for certain types of radiation. Researchers compared the device readings to NIST measurements for different radiations levels. The majority of the detectors agreed with NIST-measured values but some detectors tested had large discrepancy in readings for the lowest-energy X-rays, and were much larger than those stated in manufacturers' specifications. Other examples of NIST work related on radiation detectors include the following:
Public Safety Communications Interoperability NIST's Office of Law Enforcement Standards (OLES) is the common technical thread that is working to facilitate local, state, and Federal communications interoperability efforts through the consensus standards process. Funded through SAFECOM, a program of DHS's Science and Technology Directorate's Office for Interoperability and Compatability, the Department of Justice's Community Oriented Policing Service, and the Advanced Generation of Interoperability for Law Enforcement (AGILE) program, OLES has been employing a structured approach for confronting interoperability standardization issues. This standardization strategy is centered on the development of an architectural framework that satisfies the real-world requirements of public safety responders. The framework defines the overall structured approach for facilitating interoperability. Functional Standards (in the form of Interface Specifications) then define the details of the structure, and indicate how the architecture (and its components) will operate. Although progress has been slow in the development of these standards, significant progress has been achieved within the last year. OLES helped to complete the Public Safety Statement of Requirements for Wireless Communications and Interoperability on behalf of SAFECOM in March 2004. This is the first comprehensive, practitioner-accepted, record of the telecommunication needs of the public safety community within and across local, state, Federal, and tribal boundaries. Additionally, OLES on behalf of DHS SAFECOM, produced a draft of an architectural framework which is in essence a map that shows a network of networks and a system of systems approach which will be employed by public safety in the future. In response to Congress' call for immediate standards for communications interoperability, NIST, along with DHS and DOJ, have developed a partnership with public safety leadership to either significantly accelerate the current P25 standards development or develop interim communications standards in the absence of P25 standards. Additionally, Congress requested that SAFECOM produce a report on the plan for accelerating the development of national voluntary consensus standards for public safety interoperable communications. It is expected that because of the recent efforts by NIST and its partners, key interoperability standards will be published by the end of 2005, and products employing these standards would be available by the end of 2006. Operations in collapsed buildings In 2001, search-and-rescue robots that had been tested on a special NIST
course penetrated areas too small and too hazardous for emergency responders
to locate remains of several victims at the Collapsed buildings also present a significant problem in terms of radio
communications. First responders who rely on radio communications often lose
signals in shielded or complex environments such as in steel and reinforced
concrete high-rise structures, and in the basements or elevator shafts of
buildings. It also is very difficult to detect radio signals through the
dense rubble of a building that has collapsed as a result of natural
disasters or terrorist attacks. To simulate disaster environments, NIST is
using real-world "laboratories"-buildings that are scheduled to be
imploded as part of construction and recycling projects - such as the old Forensic analysis of magnetic audio tapes Detection of explosives and toxic chemicals The cost and size of devices for detecting toxic airborne chemicals
largely limits them to specialized equipment designed for use by the military
or by first responders to chemical spills. In the event of an attack involving
toxic chemical agents-such as the sarin gas attack
in a NIST is conducting research on a class of microsensors that has the potential to serve as a cost-effective early warning system for toxic gases and may also be applicable to the detection of vapors from explosive materials. The NIST devices use an array of microscopic hotplates coated with a film that is sensitive to ambient chemicals. A key advantage of this technology is that various types of films can be combined with multiple types of temperature cycles. An array of hotplates can thus produce a "signature" that can be matched against a library of chemical signatures to identify both the type and concentration of the toxic gas. Another advantage is that the microsensors can be produced inexpensively with electronic processing circuits built in. Preliminary testing at the Army's Edgewood Arsenal has confirmed that 1-part-per-million sensitivity is feasible with actual chemical warfare agents. Standards Development Organizations Besides the research done in our laboratories, NIST works with private sector Standards Development Organizations (SDO's) on the implementation of homeland security standards.
Conclusion As the Committee can see by the few examples I have cited, NIST has a very diverse portfolio of research activities supporting our nation's homeland security effort. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, NIST responded to the research challenges it faced. NIST's long history of research supporting homeland and national security is helping to enable the development and effective deployment of new technologies to protect the homeland. Once again thank you for inviting me to testify about NIST's activities and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Dr. Semerjian has served as the deputy director of NIST since July 2003. In this position, Dr. Semerjian is responsible for overall operation of the Institute, effectiveness of NIST's technical programs, and for interactions with international organizations. NIST has a total budget of about $858 million, and a permanent staff of about 3,000, as well as about 1,600 guest researchers from industry, academia, and other national metrology institutes from more than 40 countries. Most of the NIST researchers are located in two major campuses in Gaithersburg, Md., and Boulder, Colo. NIST also has two joint research institutes; the oldest of these is JILA, a collaborative research program with the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the other is CARB (Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology), a partnership with the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute. Dr. Semerjian received his M.Sc.
(1968) and Ph.D. (1972) degrees in engineering from |