The Massachusetts Port Authority, which oversees Logan airport and the port of Boston, has announced the creation of an advisory council to explore the use of new security technologies. Five of the eight council members have MIT ties.
"The level of the group we have here is really quite senior," Massport chief executive officer Craig Coy told the Associated Press. "We're here in Boston, Massachusetts, and this is a center for some really outstanding work. I wanted to get as much of that expertise as I could."
The pro bono council, called the Massport Security Advisory Council, includes local leaders in academia, high-tech business and the military. Council members will review security concerns and potential solutions and work individually with Massport staff within their fields of expertise.
MIT members are David Briggs, director of Lincoln Laboratory; Richard de Neufville, chairman of the Technology and Policy Program and a professor of civil and environmental engineering and of engineering systems; Sheila Widnall, professor of aeronautics and astronautics and of engineering systems, and former Secretary of the Air Force; and Patrick Winston, professor of electrical engineering and computer science.
Other members are Christopher R. Anderson, president of the Massachusetts High Technology Council; Arthur Gelb, president of Four Sigma Corp. and a life member of the MIT Corporation; Mitchell G. Tyson, former CEO of PRI Automation; and Maj. Gen. Craig P. Weston, U.S. Air Force Vice Commander of Electronic Systems Center.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on January 8, 2003.
