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US Government Awards $1.9 Million for Global Container Profiling Project: FreightDesk Technologies, Logistics Management Institute, and Natural Selection, Inc. Spearhead Initiative to Identify and Stop Suspicious Shipments to US
Washington D.C.: FreightDesk Technologies, Logistics Management Institute, and Natural Selection, Inc. have joined forces under a high-priority $1.9 million United States Government-funded grant, to demonstrate technology and to produce a concept of operations for profiling the potential risk of suspicious or abnormal container shipments prior to their loading on an international ocean carrier. While many of the government’s projects are focusing on physical technology and processes, this Global Container Profiling Project is directed almost entirely to the use of advanced data collection, processing, and analysis techniques that can be embedded in normal commercial transportation practices. The project will test new data base technologies, and will culminate in a concept of operations for isolating shipments identified through the profiling process. The project will target cargoes moving on vessels originating in Singapore and moving to and through the Port of Los Angeles.
The Department of Transportation’s Transportation Security Administration is funding this effort in order to address the critical security issues related to the more than 18,000 metal containers – approximately 50,000 individual shipments – that enter the US each day via water. Today, U.S. Customs agents physically inspect between 2 to 3 percent of these shipments.
“Every container destined to enter or pass through the United States should be treated as a potential weapon of mass destruction; every ship that carries it as a delivery device; and every port and point inland as a potential target,” said Rob Quartel, a former Member of the US Federal Maritime Commission and Chairman and CEO of FreightDesk Technologies, in his testimony before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism and Government Information, chaired by Senator Diane Feinstein (D., CA). The Subcommittee held hearings in March 2002 on “Securing our Ports Against Terror: Technology, Resource and Homeland Defense.”
Natural Selection, Inc. will lead the advanced data mining and pattern recognition effort, using evolutionary computing and other technologies. Dr. David Fogel, CEO of Natural Selection, Inc., added: “Our team will create a profiling system to identify high-risk containers before they are loaded at their foreign ports. Our goal is to turn the expert knowledge that people possess about this business into algorithms and techniques that can eventually be used to ‘electronically open’ millions of shipments, and then supplement that expertise with artificial intelligence methods that can go beyond what we already know.”
“We envision that the profiling system will ultimately employ more timely commercial data from a broader range of sources than is currently used by the government. The system will use both commercial and government data in the process,” stated Bill Crowder, Program Manager for Technical Assessment with LMI. “And,” Crowder added, “…there is no question, based on our experience, that what we learn here will have both commercial and military applicability. The security of the Nation’s supply chain is of vital concern to everyone.”
Mr. Quartel noted, “It’s not enough to know what’s in the container. You need to look at the circumstances in which the container and the shipments in it find themselves – not only the ‘what,’ but where it’s been, who touched it, and where is it going. A legal container with a legal cargo can become a lethal cargo under the right combination of circumstances. The combined process knowledge in this team is exceptional. The real-world experience of the combined team ensures a complete understanding of how cargoes are managed and moved in the end-to-end container shipping process, how data are generated in the process, what constitutes a good transaction, and how you can go about identifying the bad actor using the information generated in the process.
The GCPP team expects to complete a detailed proof of concept and create a demonstration of a prototype system by early 2003.
About the GCPP Team:
FreightDesk Technologies (FDT), provides
Internet-native software solutions to industry and government for controlling
international logistics data and for securing end-to-end processes for cargo
moving by parcel, air, road, rail, and sea. The company’s solutions drive improvements
in supply chain execution, enabling bottom-line reductions in freight expenses.
The company advises policymakers and regulators on issues of
transportation security, and its database architecture today serves to
accelerate the deployment of chain of custody visibility and shipment security
solutions in government and industry alike.
Web site: www.freightdesk.com
Logistics Management Institute (LMI), established in 1961, is a private,
nonprofit consulting organization dedicated to improving management of the nation's public sector
through research, analysis, education, and counsel. LMI has broad experience and
expertise in developing solutions to difficult problems facing national security
and government civil agencies. The company’s work with a wide array of
government agencies provides the inter agency experience essential to
successfully address the container profiling issue. LMI strives to serve senior
officials by providing innovative solutions to challenging management and
logistics problems using the most effective practices from both the public and
private sectors.
Web site: www.lmi.org
Natural Selection,
Inc. (NSI) was founded in 1993 to address complex problems in industry,
medicine, and defense. The company possesses unique expertise in computational
intelligence techniques, including evolutionary computation, neural networks,
and fuzzy logic. The corporation's research efforts support the discovery of new
pharmaceuticals, combat modeling and simulation, various forms of threat
analysis and a variety of military and industrial projects. The company is based
in La Jolla, California.
Web site: www.natural-selection.com
Media inquiries:
FDT: ( Dunn Loring, Virginia )LMI: ( McLean, Virginia )
Gene Narragon, Director, Public Affairs, 703.917.7428