UNIVERSITY NEWS - FEBRUARY 2004

MEDIA CONTACT: Debra Kain
561-297-2010
Kristine M. McGrath
561-297-1168, kmcgrath@fau.edu

FAU To Receive More Than $10 Million
In Federal Earmarks For Research

BOCA RATON, FL (February 2, 2004) - Florida Atlantic University has been awarded more than $10 million in funding through Federal earmarks approved by both houses of the legislature and signed into law by President George W. Bush this week. Funding appropriations for the 2004 budget cycle are expected to be received by March 1, 2004.

Allocations for the following FAU research projects and their funding agencies are: $7 million for the Center for Intermodal Transportation Safety and Security (Department of Transportation); $1.75 million for the Center for Coastline Security Technology (Office of Naval Research); $1 million towards research on Secure Telecommunication Networks (Defense); $350,000 for Integrity of Infrastructure Materials and Structures (Transportation); and $125,000 for research on Alzheimer's Disease (Labor-Health and Human Services.)

FAU President Frank T. Brogan cited the contributions of area legislators in helping to secure the earmark funding. "We want to particularly thank the congressional delegation for their strong support of FAU's research initiatives. It's been a record year in terms of research funding and expenditures at Florida Atlantic University, and we are extremely proud of the achievements of our faculty."

"We are of course very excited," said Dr. Larry F. Lemanski, FAU's vice president for Research and Graduate Studies, whose office coordinated the requests for the 2004 fiscal year. "This year's federal appropriations are an increase of more than 1,000% over 2003, and reflect the extraordinary growth spurt in research activity at FAU in the past few years. It's important to note that these projects reflect the work of scores of scientists in several of our colleges working collaboratively to help solve real-world problems ranging from security along Florida's coastline and issues of transportation of people and goods, to diseases that affect our aging population."

The centers and projects funded by the federal appropriations allow for the continued growth and expansion of FAU's research initiatives. The programs include:

The Center of Intermodal Transportation Safety and Security (UCITSS) is a state university system-wide proposal, led by FAU, and designed to address the potential threat of terrorism affecting the safety and general economic welfare of Florida and its transportation-based infrastructure. Its primary mission is to support initiatives by the state to protect and encourage the economic vitality of Florida by preventing both terrorism and transportation gridlock, which is estimated to be costing the nation nearly $500 billion annually. This includes Florida's 1,197-mile coastline and existing maritime facilities, airspace and airports, telecommunications, surface transportation and subsurface systems such as pipelines. The Center brings together four universities - FAU, Florida International University, the University of Central Florida and the University of South Florida - in the areas of transportation and urban planning, architecture, engineering, computer and information science/technology, criminology and public administration. Additional state universities are being invited to join the consortium. These educational resources will work with the Governor's Office (including Governor Bush's Strategic Intermodal Initiative) and the Florida Departments of Law Enforcement and Transportation in a unique collaborative partnership endorsed by 12 Florida Congressmen, led by the Honorable E. Clay Shaw, Jr., Robert Wexler, Alcee Hastings and Mark Foley.

The Center for Coastline Security Technology will focus on research, simulation and evaluation of coastal defense and marine domain awareness equipment, sensors and components. Enhanced surveillance systems and sensors mounted on autonomous platforms will be used to protect major ports, small inlets, beaches, remote coastal areas and their approaches, integrating such sensors and incorporating image analysis and data mining methods to quickly and effectively identify potential threats to Florida's coastline. The effort will be based at FAU's SeaTech campus, allowing researchers to work with existing U.S. Navy marine testing and evaluation facilities.

The Secure Telecommunication Networks Project addresses information networks that support a broad range of applications including health care, defense, academics, finance and the environment. Such multimedia networks are vulnerable to misuse, and the proposed project will research developing technologies for secure information storage and exchange, to reduce potentially crippling effects of security breaches or malicious cyber attacks. This project involves faculty research from the Colleges of Engineering, Science and Business at FAU with major research areas including cryptology, secure software development, data mining, pattern recognition and biometrics and Web services security.

The Integrity of Infrastructure Materials and Structures project aims to extend capacity and capabilities of the Center of Marine Materials at FAU to better meet national needs by upgrading its natural seawater handling system; constructing a large, multipurpose, instrumented seawater exposure facility and a marine/ultraviolet environmental, atmospheric exposure test facility; acquiring advanced micro-analytical instrumentation and interfacing test capabilities with users at distant sites. For example, the existing low-capacity pipeline system at FAU's SeaTech campus, which currently draws fresh seawater from 300 yards offshore, would be augmented with a high-capacity pipeline system needed for expanded test facilities. Sophisticated on-site instrumentation with internet interface will enable collaborative studies between researchers at SeaTech and other technology developers without direct access to this unique testing facility.

The Aging Brain as a Complex System for Studies on Alzheimer's Disease, Hypoxia, Dementia and Related Disorders project brings together three interdisciplinary programs at FAU to investigate Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases related to aging. The research project will approach this subject at three levels: the cellular level, using molecular biology, bioinformatics and functional genomics expertise at the Center for Molecular Biology & Biotechnology; the organic level, to be carried out at FAU's Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, where sophisticated imaging equipment monitors changes in the brain as it relates to behavior and the disease and at the clinical level, as researchers in the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing carry out studies on the prevention and treatment of dementia and delirium. Research will be integrated, with the aim of developing new ways to protect the brain from oxidative damage, or to repair the damage that has occurred.

For more information on these research projects, contact the Division of Research and Graduate Studies at Florida Atlantic University at 561-297-0267.
-FAU-