Homeland Security Education @ TAMU

On July 25, the University of California’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) will hold their fifth annual “Public Policy and Biological Threats” workshop.  The workshop is designed to help train individuals involved in future biosecurity research and policy development on topics such as: “the science of biological threat agents and weapons;”  “introduction to infectious diseases (both human and animal), epidemiology and public health;” “biosecurity intelligence and forensics;” and “ethical and legal aspects.”  The program is open to graduate students, academics, and professionals. 

The deadline to apply for the conference is May 9.  For more information about the program, visit the IGCC’s website at http://igcc.ucsd.edu/PPBT.php.  Further questions may be directed to PPBT Program Manager Raymond Clark (racl...@ucsd.edu, 858-822-1944).

The Texas A&M Library has published a Homeland Security Subject Guide, which provides users with links to a wide array of resources on homeland security related issues.  Users can find links to quality homeland security journals, books, citations, and searchable databases.  The guide also provides users with links to homeland security related websites, think tanks, and statistical data sets. 

The Homeland Security Subject Guide, along with other relevant subject guides, may be accessed through the TAMU library webpage, or by clicking here.

On May 2, the Colorado Homeland Defense Alliance, and the Colorado Springs Technology Incubator will host the National Security Innovation Competition.  The competition, which is open to teams of up to five undergraduate and graduate students, is designed to allow students to present their original ideas for new products or technologies that can meet existing Security needs, to a wide audience comprised of individuals involved in industry, academia, and various government agencies.

Students will be required to give a fifteen minute oral presentation on their original technology, as well as answer questions about their technology from the audience.  The teams will be evaluated solely on their oral presentation. 

One page executive summaries are due by April 21, and electronic copies of the presentation are due by the April 30.  Students are not required to submit a written paper to be eligible for the competition. 

For more information about the competition, including judging criteria, prize information and competition objectives, visit the competition’s website.  Competition submission or further questions should be submitted to Roger Neeland at rneeland@cstionline.org. 

Updated every two weeks, the Homeland Security Digital Library provides users with access to presidental directives, policy information, and other homeland security related documents and multimedia.  Users can also access links to other recommended homeland security related research sites and resources.

The site is maintained by the Naval Post-Graduate School, FEMA, and the Department of Homeland Security and may be accessed at https://www.hsdl.org/.

The Emergency Management Institute has issued its “Guide to Emergency Management and Related Terms, Definitions, Concepts, Acronyms, Organizations, Programs, Guidance and Legislation.”  The guide provides definitions and explanations of a wide range of Homeland Security terms, acronyms and concepts.  The guide also provides users with explanations of various emergency management and Homeland Security programs.

The guide can be accessed at http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu/termdef.asp 

Founded in 1996, STRATFOR provides individuals, corporations, governments and educational institutions with objective intelligence and analysis about strategically important events around the world.  Stories are updated frequently thoughout the day, and cover a host of topics ranging from border security, foreign trade, international relations, and terrorism, and are organzied by topic, type, and by region dealt with. 

This conference will take place May 21-22, 2008, at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Tx. Conference supporters are sponsoring a white paper contest, one for working professionals and one for students under 25 years of age. The papers must relate to the use of technology for border security. You can get additional information at the website [http://www.globalbordersecurity.com/callforpapers.html].

The Public Entity Risk Institute (PERI) and Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado with support from the National Science Foundation and Swiss Re has established dissertation fellowships for all aspects of natural and human-made disasters, risks or hazards. For more information, go to http://thunder1.cudenver.edu/periship/.

The Public Entity Risk Institute is hosting a free web seminar to explore the some times competing policy issues associated with homeland security and environmental protection. The Symposium will attempt to reconcile the aims of the sustainability movement with with those of the homeland security movement. To get more information about the Symposium or to sign up, go to http://www.riskinstitute.org/PERI/SYMPOSIUM. Participation is free and open to all.

http://www.hsdec.org/downloads/springsym07/Rollins2.pdf

This report reviews the academic programs that now exist and the course work they offer. It covers strengths, weaknesses, issues and possible solutions for the emerging discipline of homeland security.