FSU spin-off contributes to U.S. ports protection

minutes to complete. The nature of a port worker’s job determines which lessons he or she would be required to take.

“At LSI, much of our research focuses on helping people be more efficient and effective in their work,” Lang said. “The port-security project is a great example of how improving someone’s performance can not only enhance lives, but save lives.”

The final product, completed in 2009, was named PortStar. The system was made available to all U.S. ports on 1 January of this year, giving them new tools for delivery and management of security training. With online lessons, waterside facilities can train more employees at a lower cost and create a career ladder for security personnel. Not only can ports use the software to streamline their compliance reporting, employees can take their transcripts from one job to another. Through July, more than 3,000 trainees have enrolled and completed over 10,000 lessons using the PortStar system.

Despite its initial success, however, federal stakeholders, including the DHS, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration, indicated that they could not provide additional funds for long-term maintenance of the program. Florida State was encouraged to market PortStar commercially via the private sector — which is exactly what it did.

Butler and Wilder, two of PortStar’s developers, formed a new company, EDG, in Tallahassee, and signed an agreement with the Florida State University Research Foundation that will allow EDG to make PortStar available to new clients on a fee basis. EDG will soon lease space at FSU’s newly dedicated Research Foundation Entrepreneurial Building.

EDG took a big step toward commercialization on 15 July 2010, when it signed an agreement with Canadian company MacDonnell Security Risk Management to form a strategic partnership. Under the agreement, EDG will maintain, host and manage the PortStar curriculum and training management system, as well as offer IT support for users and lead all research and development efforts. MacDonnell, meanwhile, will provide marketing and sales support, as well as instructor-led training for clients using the PortStar curriculum. “MacDonnell is a good fit for us,” says Wilder. “They’re responsible for the majority of port security training in Canada, and they wanted to expand their operation into U.S. ports. It seemed natural that we get together.”

In addition, EDG will assist MacDonnell, which has provided training and risk-management services to the Canadian maritime industry since 2003, with its efforts to replicate MacDonnell’s popular annual port-security conference in the United States.

“Our port customers have come to expect a very high standard of training,” said Ralston MacDonnell, president of MacDonnell Group Consulting Ltd. “We searched the world over for a quality product that would be recognized by the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Maritime Administration and FEMA, and incorporate Web-based learning. The timing of PortStar was perfect, and the expert team Florida State University has assembled will provide stellar service to the ports of America from our base here in Tallahassee.”

EDG and MacDonnell began offering PortStar to new clients on a fee basis on 1 October. Butler says the new partners are excited to get started.

“Signing agreements in July generated a burst of energy and good momentum, and we’ll need that,” he said. “FSU and LSI staff have been very supportive throughout this process, but transitioning from FSU project to commercial product in 60 days is still a wild ride.”