Michael Larson 

Michael Larson received his Ph.D. from MIT in 1992, before joining the mechanical engineering faculty at Tulane University. Dr. Larson is the director of the Research Institute for Security Engineering (RISE), one of four research centers in Tulane’s School of Engineering. RISE is addressing a broad range of homeland security needs by developing cutting-edge technologies through basic research and then transferring these technologies to users in government and industry. RISE has been awarded more than $3.5 million for research related to security engineering.  RISE researchers from seven departments are actively collaborating in the areas of computational algorithm development, infrastructure integrity, bioengineering, electromagnetic/directed energy, systems and sensor engineering, and ethics and policy.

During his time at Tulane, Dr. Larson has led a vigorous research program. Under the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the Air Force Materials Laboratory, he has tackled a number of projects related to the failure of structures and to optical methods. One of his current research thrusts is in the area of laser/materials interactions. He is creating new computational models to simulate the effects of directed energy on load bearing structures.  

Professor Larson has the primary responsibility for teaching his department’s design courses. He instituted an industrial sponsorship program for student projects, with companies ranging in size from the Lockheed-Martin Corporation down to a local manufacturer of aluminum welding wire. Michael also introduced a sophomore design course which guides students in applying a structured design methodology in the context of a design-and-build competition. Under the sponsorship of the Lilly Foundation, he expanded the competition component of that course to include local high school physics classes in an effort to bolster interest in engineering among secondary school students. He recently founded the “Studio for Creative Design” within the School of Engineering to foster entrepreneurship in teams of engineering and business students engaged in creating new products.  Professor Larson’s teaching efforts have been rewarded with a 1997 Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award, a 1998 Tulane Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award, the 1999 Society of Tulane Engineers and the Lee H. Johnson Award for Teaching Excellence, and he has three times been selected by students as his department’s “teacher of the year.”

Engineering Solutions to Security Problems

Today, technology-based "solutions" abound which purport to solve a wide range of security problems. Unfortunately many of these do not address the important underlying needs. More and more we are presented with fixes which bring a perception of security without changing, and sometimes worsening, the actual level of protection. This presentation will include how one can sensibly sift through the hype and the options and settle on meaningful solutions through employing a structured engineering design methodology. The methodology is a useful framework for making decisions in a diverse range of security realms, from software agents to human surveillance. In addition, a number of modern security systems will be reviewed along with their underlying protocols.