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Volpe Center Highlights - May/June 2006

Letter from the Director

Letter from the Director | Focus | Safety | Environmental Stewardship | Published and Presented

Supporting DOT and Other Agencies

As part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, the Volpe Center works with the modal administrations of DOT to advance the Department's priorities for innovation and research in transportation technologies and concepts. However, the Center is also committed to supporting the transportation requirements of other agencies. This interagency experience effectively leverages the Center's technical capabilities and allows us to gain expertise that will further support DOT's mission.

The Center's Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) work described in the Focus article of this issue of Highlights exemplifies this cross-cutting approach. The Center is currently supporting the U.S. Navy in a major initiative to expand MDA globally. This work has its roots in our long-term involvement in marine navigation. For example, navigation history was made in the 1990s when a commercial vessel was tracked for the first time in the Saint Lawrence Seaway with a GPS-based system developed by the Center. As described in this issue, this technology was further refined and implemented as an operational system for the Panama Canal and later for ports in Honduras and Nicaragua. With the introduction of the Automatic Identification System (AIS) and the requirement that commercial vessels over a certain size transmit location and other navigational information, our role has expanded, and we now support several agencies in gathering and distributing this information and thus enhancing Maritime Domain Awareness.

In addition to the U.S. Navy, organizations that have turned to the Volpe Center for support in this area have included the Technology Support Working Group, the Department of Homeland Security (U.S. Coast Guard), the State Department, Columbia River Pilots Association, the Boston Harbor Pilots, the State of Massachusetts, the City of Boston, the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, the Panama Canal Commission, and the Army Corps of Engineers, as well as several NATO countries.

Not only do these diverse organizations benefit from the Volpe Center's expertise, but with each project, we enhance our ability to support DOT in achieving its strategic goals.

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