Eric Beier

Fostering the "Safe" Sharing of Confidential Information Proves Challenging for DHS Fellow

Imagine this scenario: A terrorist cell is suspected of conducting operations inside a building on a city block corner. What type of equipment and personnel would be required to monitor and eventually diffuse the activities of this undesirable group?

More often than not, several types of agencies from different areas (i.e., the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Military, etc.) would be involved in the stakeout of these individuals. But with each agency bringing their own goals and objectives, classified information and incompatible computer systems, how can we ensure the groups will work together to eliminate the threat, while not only protecting Americans, but also agency "secrets"?

That's the challenge given to Eric Beier, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) graduate fellow who spent the summer of 2006 interning at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's (ORNL) Computational Sciences and Engineering division in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Studying under Senior Researcher Kalyan Perumalla, Ph.D., Beier fulfilled a 10-week internship as part of his DHS fellowship—a program that gives students hands-on opportunities in science and technology, all while fulfilling DHS goals.

"The complication of my project is the 'federated part'," Beier said, "where we are investigating the effect of an area [a city block in the above scenario] being covered by two or more different groups such as police, intelligence agencies, military, etc., and those groups, either due to sensitivity of the data or incompatibility of computer databases, are unable to share all information with each other. Even if the agencies all decided that they would declassify all information required to help solve a problem or situation, it may become difficult to get the information into one database."

So Beier spent his days at ORNL programming C++ code, creating and solving various instances around the problem. "We were trying to come up with a tool that will require the agencies to share the least amount of information possible, while still coming to a globally optimal solution," he said.
 
To do the particular type of work that Beier had been focusing on required a "solid understanding of the fundamentals of optimization, together with computational skills; both of which Eric has mastered well to undertake the challenging research problem," Dr. Perumalla said.

"This particular effort is yet another example of how new scientific approaches can potentially make a difference in addressing the immediate needs of the society and nation."

As for where the application will go from here, Beier and Perumalla hope to publish a paper on their findings to date; therefore, helping to contribute to this important dilemma. "This research is also applicable to industry, so it may help the private sector as well."

In August, Beier returned to Texas A&M to continue working on his Ph.D. in industrial engineering. "After my doctoral research, I will decide whether to go back to academia to become a professor or go to work in a national lab or in the industry."

For more information about the DHS Scholarship and Fellowship program, please visit http://www.orau.gov/dhsed/.