Posted on: Thursday, September 23, 2004
Hawai'i researcher lands $416,000 grant for harbor security
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
A Honolulu researcher will receive a $416,000 grant to develop a surveillance and monitoring system for Hawai'i shipping corridors, harbors and other locations considered critical to homeland security.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has named Paul S. Schultz, who retired last year as a U.S. Navy rear admiral, as one of 12 winners in its national$9 million competition for information technology projects.
Schultz, a Makiki resident, is president of a startup research and development company, Hawaiya Technologies. He said his proposal would adapt and expand on a Coast Guard network of cameras and sensors in San Francisco Bay that was developed by the systems engineering group of Anteon Corp., a corporate sponsor providing startup support for Hawaiya.
Edward Teixeira, the state's vice director of Civil Defense, said he couldn't be specific about the locations where hardware would be installed but said the Honolulu Harbor and Sand Island areas, with its fuel facilities and other critical services, would be a focus.
The primary addition to the system here, to be developed over one year, would be radar sensors that would provide surveillance of shipping lanes, Schultz said.
"Until now, we've overlooked radar, which is important so we could track shipping on the transPacific routes from Asia to the Mainland ," he said.
The system here also would incorporate "electro-optical devices," cameras that create images using both normal and infrared light, he said. All of the data would be transmitted to a central command and control base — initially, the State Civil Defense headquarters at Diamond Head — where it could be viewed through secure monitors set up on the Web.
Eventually, the network could be expanded with command centers on other islands and even elsewhere within the Pacific region, Schultz said, adding that the fact that the monitors are Web-based would enable them to be moved in times of crisis.
The demonstration project also would incorporate a private surveillance system — a network set up at a power or fuel utility, for example — to show how existing systems can become part of comprehensive monitoring.
"The Department of Homeland Security has been focusing its programmatic efforts on the first responders" — military, fire, police and security agencies, Schultz said. "What we're trying to do is take that one level up, to provide a command and control system that incorporates the protection of our borders."
Teixeira said the project is a welcome business opportunity for Hawai'i that will enhance security here and throughout the country.
"The bigger, broader, deeper picture is how do we develop a network not only statewide but regional?" he said. "We're so happy that Hawai'i got one of the nominations from the 113 ideas submitted."
Schultz commanded the Navy 7th Fleet's Amphibious Force, where three years ago he oversaw the installation aboard a Japan-based ship of a computerized military command station that received three-dimensional images from radar, electro-optical systems, satellites and other sensors.
Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
