Date: November 22, 2004
COHEN/HOMELAND SECURITY SCHOOL
TCR AM
With its numerous tourist destinations, amusement parks, and a huge airport, Los Angeles is considered by many to be one of the nation's top terrorist targets. This year, L.A. has also become home to a new think tank designed to study and prevent terrorism. USC's Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events, also known as CREATE, is the first university program ever to be supported by the US Department of Homeland Security. Our Los Angeles Bureau Chief Alex Cohen reports.
The competition to become the first university sponsored by Homeland Security to study terrorism was fierce, 72 schools applied. USC was a natural fit, says Dr. Randolph Hall, co-director of the CREATE program, considering the school's location and its reputation for excellence in programs such as engineering, robotics and economics.
Hall: You look at the 9/11 commission report, one thing they cited as a failure prior to that event was lack of imagination, the inability to foresee what terrorists might do in the future. As an academic institution, this is really our mission.
The school has received a $12 million grant from the Department of Homeland Security to combat terrorism by assessing risks and consequences and working with both government agencies and private companies. So far about 50 students have enrolled in the CREATE program which combines classes from the school of engineering as well as the school of public policy, planning and development.
Last week, students and professors from the CREATE program unveiled projects they've been working on at the school's first conference. For example, Dr. Detlof von Winterfeldt, co-director of CREATE, has been analyzing the risk that could be posed if a dirty bomb was detonated at the port of Los Angeles. Von Winterfeldt said considering 36 percent of US imports comes through the port, if operations came to a halt the state's economy could be seriously harmed.
Hall: And it's not only the port that would be shut down and have problems if there's an attack, it's all the ripple effect that occur because the good can't come into the country anymore, Walmart doesn't get their deliveries, and you can't buy your baby food.
In one corner of the conference, three students showed off translation software they've developed that could be used by a doctor to help communicate with a Farsi-speaking patient.
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PhD student Nathan Schurr is working on software that can be used to train first responders what to do in a terrorist attack. Schurr says much of the research being done in computer science today is used for militaristic purposes & not so at CREATE.
Schurr: I think it's actually kind of very nice to have a chance to be kind of thinking more along the lines of It's very cool to have a goal in mind of how can we save the most amount of lives.
Schurr also says it's a good time to study terrorism. Most experts agree that with the way the world is going, there won't be any lack of job security in the industry for many years to come.
For the California Report, I'm Alex Cohen in Los Angeles.
