SGI Hosts Homeland Security and Defense Summit in Washington, D.C.Gathering Brings U.S. Government Officials Together with Technology Leaders
For Discussions on Technology's Role in U.S. Homeland Security and Defense WASHINGTON, Nov. 13, 2002 -- High-level officials from U.S. military and civilian agencies, SGI executives and leading system integrators gather today at the 2002 SGI Homeland Security and Defense Summit to discuss technology's role in homeland protection and to showcase innovative technologies used in support of homeland security and defense-in the areas of urban intelligence, critical infrastructure protection, and disaster response, modeling and simulation. Guest speakers at the summit include Dr. Jerome Hauer, assistant secretary for Public Health Emergency Preparedness, Department of Health and Human Services, and Maj. Gen. Dale W. Meyerrose, director of Command Control Systems for the U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and director of Architectures and Integration for the U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM). SGI Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bob Bishop will speak on how a plethora of information affects the government's homeland security initiatives. The summit also features a panel on the role of technology in countering terrorism. Moderated by Arthur Money, former U.S. assistant secretary of defense, the panel includes Lee Holcomb, from the U.S. Office of Homeland Security; Robert Popp, from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); and Tom Hopkins, from the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency. "Recent events have pointed to the critical role that technology plays in the current war against terrorism and the protection of the homeland. The 2002 SGI Homeland Security and Defense Summit is bringing government and technology leaders together to share insights on the role of technology solutions for homeland security and defense," said Lang Craighill, director, Homeland Security Initiatives, SGI. "Key U.S. agencies and defense contractors are represented here to articulate critical homeland security challenges and to showcase the technology innovations proposed to solve them." Technology innovations that will be showcased today at the summit include: -- A geometrically correct, geo-spatially accurate 3D model of a large urban area, such as the city of Baghdad. Using RealSite(TM) software from Harris Corp., the model enables rapid analysis of the relative heights of structures and lets the user visualize which aspects of surrounding objects can be viewed from a particular vantage point. The software is used to create representations of large urban areas for security and response planning, scene familiarization, and post-event analysis. -- The Vigilys(TM) collaborative situational-awareness solution for multiple agencies engaged in crisis management, from Polexis, Inc. Vigilys software makes it possible to sort through myriad paper-based data points, telephone calls and person-to-person communications, enabling an incident commander to make critical life-saving decisions based on shared information that has been collected, analyzed and visualized in real time. -- Systems for assessment of airborne threats in urban areas, developed by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in cooperation with U.S. agencies. Demonstrations include a weather forecasting application; a new technology called dispersion nomographics, which provides detailed, time-dependent, high-resolution fluid simulations of contaminant transport and diffusion; and the application of scientific visualization and computational fluid dynamics simulations to understand the dispersion of air pollutants. -- Technologies for improving the blast-resistance of structures. The Army Corps of Engineers studied 3D simulations of the attacks on the Khobar Towers barracks in Saudi Arabia and the Murrah building in Oklahoma City. They then analyzed the effects of the attacks and recommended changes, such as blast-resistant windows. On September 11, part of the Pentagon that was hit had already been retrofitted based on these recommendations, and, as a result, lives were saved. -- The use of a real-time virtual-reality-based disaster management simulator called Advanced Disaster Management Simulator (ADMS) for the development, validation and testing of disaster response plans and procedures -- from ETC Simulation Group. -- The Area Air Defense Commander (AADC) capability from General Dynamics, a battlespace management system designed to improve battlefield readiness by rapidly analyzing the capabilities and intentions of enemy ballistic missiles and air forces and comparing them to allied assets in the theater. The system creates a three-dimensional battlespace display that can be used to visualize the theater and develop a dynamic set of integrated air defense plans. SGI has been an established partner of the U.S. government for more than 20 years, providing homeland security and defense solutions to the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, Federal Bureau of Investigation and civilian agencies. More than 34% of SGI's business is with the U.S. government. SGI was first funded by a grant from DARPA and recently has been awarded a new contract from the agency. SGI works with leading government contractors, such as Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Harris Corporation and SAIC, providing these contractors with high-performance computing, storage and visualization solutions for their government customers. SGI's core competencies in the areas of high-performance computing, visualization and the management of complex data offer a unique set of capabilities suited to support an innovative class of homeland security solutions in the following key areas outlined by the National Strategy for Homeland Security: -- Defending against catastrophic threats -- Domestic counter-terrorism -- Intelligence and warning -- Protecting critical infrastructures and key assets -- Emergency training and preparedness for response About SGI Celebrating its 20th year, SGI, also known as Silicon Graphics, Inc., is the world's leader in high-performance computing, visualization and the management of complex data. SGI(R) products, services and solutions enable its technical and creative customers to gain strategic and competitive advantages in their core businesses. Whether being used to design and build safer cars and airplanes, discover new medications and oil reserves, predict the weather, entertain us with thrilling movie special effects or provide mission-critical support for government and defense, SGI systems and expertise are empowering a world of innovation and discovery. The company, located on the Web at http://www.sgi.com, is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., and has offices worldwide. NOTE: Silicon Graphics, SGI and the SGI logo are registered of Silicon Graphics, Inc., in the U.S. and/or other countries worldwide. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners. CONTACT: Greg Slabodkin, +1-301-595-2618, or slabodkin@sgi.com, or SGI PR Hotline, +1-650-933-7777, both of SGI; or Victoria Del Mundo of Fleishman-Hillard, +1-415-722-5010, or delmundv@fleishman.com, for SGI. SOURCE SGI Web Site: http://www.sgi.com |