The protection of urban infrastructure -- including bridges, tunnels, roads and airports -- is a public concern. As an international border city and an aviation hub, Detroit presents critical challenges for the protection of infrastructure against known and unknown threats. The foremost authority on Detroit's transportation infrastructure, Dr. Haluk Aktan, professor of Civil Engineering at Wayne State University, will give a presentation at noon on Wednesday, Nov. 12, in the Anthropology Museum, Rm. 1220 Old Main at Warren and Cass avenues.

Our surface transportation infrastructure is interconnected with major structures such as the Ambassador Bridge, North America's number one international border crossing, the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, the second busiest crossing between the US and Canada, and the Blue Water bridge. Any threat to these and other significant structures can impact Detroit and hamper economic conditions severely. Dr. Aktan's presentation will highlight some of the hazards facing Detroit's transportation infrastructure and the steps required to mitigate the risks.

Dr. Aktan is the Director of the Center for Structural Durability, a Michigan Department of Transportation Center of Excellence. He is the author or co-author of more than 70 journal articles on urban infrastructure.

This seminar is presented by the Institute for Information Technology and Culture (IITC) and is the first in a series of three workshops to be offered by the IITC that will focus on issues of homeland security, with an emphasis on the coordination disaster response. On Dec. 9, the IITC will feature Dr. Matt Seeger on disaster communication in multi-agency jurisdictional response and on Feb. 5, 2004, Dr. Suzanne White will speak about biomedical preparedness in Metro Detroit.

IITC is a multidisciplinary group of medical and organizational anthropologists, psychologists, engineers, nurses, social workers, computer experts and doctors collaborating to understand the cultural aspects of technology use. For more information regarding this project or IITC, please contact Dr. Allen Batteau, (313) 874-7010 or a.batteau@wayne.edu, or visit Institute for Information Technology and Culture.

Wayne State University is a premier institution offering more than 350 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to more than 31,000 students in metropolitan Detroit.

Contact: Molly Brauer
Voice: (313) 577-2150
Fax: (313) 577-8154