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Pace University launches new cybersecurity institute
Last week Pace University announced that it had launched a special institution aimed at helping the United States alleviate the critical shortage of cybersecurity professionals and secure the nation’s data networks
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Senate stalls on easing visa restrictions for highly skilled immigrants
A bill meant to allow more high-skill immigrants from India and China to obtain green cards has been placed on hold by Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) over concerns that it should do more to “protect Americans at home”
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Also noted
G4S Secure Solutions wins award for homeland security training and education | Cumberland and Salem Community College team to offer homeland security degree | University of Maryland promotes cybersecurity education | Government struggles with cybersecurity workforce | Cybersecurity: a varied field
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Sector Report for Tuesday, 6 December 2011: Education Special
This report contains the following stories.
Plus 6 additional stories
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Cyber-attackers think as regular crooks
An engineer and a criminologist are applying criminological concepts and research methods in the study of cybercrime; their work has produced recommendations for IT managers to use in the prevention of cyber attacks on their networks
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Chicago emergency officials preparing for harsh winter
As Chicago braces for an especially brutal winter, the Cook County Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management is doing its best to prepare residents, emergency responders, and work crews for the worst weather in the nation
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Persistent undersea surveillance by autonomous robots
The U.S. military plans to deploy squadrons of air, surface, and undersea robotic vehicles later this decade, and wants to make these vehicles more autonomous; researchers develop an algorithm that helps sea gliders decide when to spend more time looking at regions that have changes in activity or environmental factors; without the control algorithm, gliders paid equal attention to all areas and acquired less information
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Portable wastewater system generates energy, produces drinking water
Researchers are working to develop a portable wastewater treatment system that could improve the military’s efficiency; the solar-bio-nano project also will generate energy and produce drinking water, thus providing a potential blueprint for the future of municipal/agricultural wastewater treatment systems
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Chinese rare earth embargo would be “disastrous,” says mining executive
Mike Parnell, the CEO of U.S. Rare Earths, Inc., recently took the time to chat with Homeland Security NewsWire’s executive editor Eugene K. Chow; in the interview Parnell discusses the potential consequences of a full Chinese rare earth metal embargo, efforts to develop alternatives to rare earth metals, and the progress made in making the drilling process more environmentally friendly
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Soft robots wiggle and worm in tight spaces
Researchers have demonstrated a unique class of locomotive robot: a soft robot, composed exclusively of soft materials, which is inspired by animals (for example, squid, starfish, worms) that do not have hard internal skeletons
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Large-scale power storage for the energy grid
The sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow; Stanford University researchers have used nanoparticles of a copper compound to develop a high-power battery electrode that is inexpensive to make, efficient and durable that it could be used to build batteries big enough for economical large-scale energy storage on the electrical grid
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Insects to become first responders, aid in search and rescue
Researchers are finding ways to harvest energy from insects, holding the promise of using insects to aid in first response and search and rescue, and monitor hazardous situations before sending in humans
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Harvard-designed swarm robots licensed to Swiss company
Harvard researchers developed Kilobot — a low-cost, easy-to-use robotic system for advancing development of “swarms” of robots; robot swarms might one day tunnel through rubble to find survivors, monitor the environment and remove contaminants, and self-assemble to form support structures in collapsed buildings
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Jellyfish-like robot for underwater surveillance
Researchers at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech built an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) inspired by jellyfish morphology and propulsion mechanism
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The navigational skills of bacteria inspire robotics researchers
Humans may regret this, but bacteria have superior survival skills; bacteria are not the only organisms that travel in swarms — fish, bees, and birds also exhibit collective navigation; bacteria, however, have superior survival tactics and such tactics may be inspire better robot design
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More headlines
The long view
Autonomous Vehicle Technology Vulnerable to Road Object Spoofing and Vanishing Attacks
Researchers have demonstrated the potentially hazardous vulnerabilities associated with the technology called LiDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, many autonomous vehicles use to navigate streets, roads and highways. The researchers have shown how to use lasers to fool LiDAR into “seeing” objects that are not present and missing those that are – deficiencies that can cause unwarranted and unsafe braking or collisions.
Tantalizing Method to Study Cyberdeterrence
Tantalus is unlike most war games because it is experimental instead of experiential — the immersive game differs by overlapping scientific rigor and quantitative assessment methods with the experimental sciences, and experimental war gaming provides insightful data for real-world cyberattacks.
Prototype Self-Service Screening System Unveiled
TSA and DHS S&T unveiled a prototype checkpoint technology, the self-service screening system, at Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas, NV. The aim is to provide a near self-sufficient passenger screening process while enabling passengers to directly receive on-person alarm information and allow for the passenger self-resolution of those alarms.
Falling Space Debris: How High Is the Risk I'll Get Hit?
An International Space Station battery fell back to Earth and, luckily, splashed down harmlessly in the Atlantic. Should we have worried? Space debris reenters our atmosphere every week.
Testing Cutting-Edge Counter-Drone Technology
Drones have many positive applications, bad actors can use them for nefarious purposes. Two recent field demonstrations brought government, academia, and industry together to evaluate innovative counter-unmanned aircraft systems.
Strengthening the Grid’s ‘Backbone’ with Hydropower
Argonne-led studies investigate how hydropower could help add more clean energy to the grid, how it generates value as grids add more renewable energy, and how liner technology can improve hydropower efficiency.