TEEX Emergency Management Training: It's worth it!

It might seem like a long way to travel for training, but College Station, Texas, offers an excellent variety of emergency management courses. A few weeks ago, David LaWall and I attended the Enhanced Incident Management/Unified Command course at Texas A&M’s Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) Emergency Operations Training Center. It was an excellent opportunity to test our knowledge of the Incident Command System and become more familiar with the operations of an Incident Command Post. But are the benefits of this course and many others like it worth the cost and time?

It is challenging to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of emergency management training. How can one determine if the money and time invested was actually worth it? Gauging the increase of knowledge or ability is almost impossible. While tests can be administered to determine if the presented materials are being remembered, does reciting the “Planning P” steps really equate to an increased ability in incident command?

The cost and time justification for me boils down to two factors: experiences and connections. The course at TEEX was primarily composed of half-day exercises, which allowed the participants to rotate through various positions within the Incident Command structure. For instance, a participant may be the Operations Section Chief in the morning exercise and the Situation Unit Leader in the afternoon exercise. Having a variety of exercises provides the participants with varying experiences, which helps to clarify the Incident Command Post’s planning process.

The second justification is connections. TEEX, like many other training facilities, allows the course participants to get to know each other. These connections provide an excellent resource; we grow professionally by expanding our network of associates in diverse fields. That is one of the great benefits of TEEX; the participants are from police, fire, homeland security, public works, public health, airports, nonprofits, and even private companies.

There are many options for emergency management training; TEEX should be at the top of the list. Whether coming from police or fire to public works and public health, every participant will walk away having experienced an Incident Command Post multiple times and with new diverse connections. TEEX may be in College Station, Texas, but it is worth the cost and time.

For more information, watch our latest video on the Emergency Operations Training Center or visit http://www.teex.org/.

-Bill Curtis, Emergency Services Coordinator
UW-Madison Police Department
(wjcurtis@wisc.edu)


This blog was originally published in the UW-Madison Police Department, Emergency Management blog. Our thanks for their permission to post it on our site.

New jobs in alternative energy coming, will require trained workforce

Job opportunities in solar and wind technology are expected to increase – maybe not at the speed of light – but at a definite jog. The renewable energy industry in the U.S. has grown more than tenfold in the last decade. The economic and environmental benefits of clean energy are catching hold. Texas already leads the nation in wind power generation, with 10,085 MW of capacity in 2010. And the state has vast untapped solar resources, especially in West Texas, although solar photovoltaic energy generation has been slower to take off, partly hampered by a lack of transmission lines. 

With its natural resources, cost-effective technologies and workforce, the state is poised to be the leader in solar as well as wind energy. Ernst & Young's latest quarterly Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index ranked Texas in the top 5 states committed to growing energy infrastructures, along with California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Mexico and Colorado. Another 2012 report shows Texas and California leading in planned renewable energy projects. The state would also benefit from the proposed, 400-mile "Southern Cross" high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line connecting Garland, Texas, to the Southeast.

The Solar Energy Industries Association reports that almost 100,000 Americans work in the industry and estimates that solar energy could support over half a million U.S. jobs by 2016. The number of projects providing solar energy more than doubled in the U.S. from 2008 to 2010, with enough solar energy generated to power 3.2 million homes in 2010. Grid-connected PV installations also grew 100% between 2009 and 2010.

By 2020, most states are requiring that 20% of energy consumption come from renewable sources. One study has estimated that a 20% Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) would create more than 38,000 new jobs in Texas by 2025, and much of the job creation would be in rural Texas. The state already has nearly 175 companies focused on the solar energy industry. Today it’s easier than ever for the average person to integrate solar technologies into their home or business. Advancements in solar panel technology and inverters are making it less expensive for citizens to offset part of their electric usage.

And some communities are offering rebates and incentives to encourage citizens and small businesses to do just that! For example, Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative in Texas encourages its members to invest in clean energy and provides them with information and resources on wind and solar energy systems, energy-efficient appliances and HVAC systems as well as available incentives and rebates. Its efforts were recently recognized by a Growing Green Award from the Texas Growing Green Communities initiative and the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration (EDA).

The renewable energy industry is maturing and coming into its own. As the costs continue to decrease and incentives increase, more companies will need trained technicians to install and maintain these residential, small business and utility systems. The Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) has begun a technical training program for entry-level employees who could handle basic installation and maintenance of these solar and wind energy systems. The first course offered will be the 40-hour apprentice-level certification course in solar installation. TEEX is the first training site in the Brazos County area affiliated with the Texas Renewable Energy Education Consortium (TREEC), which is sponsored by the State Energy Conservation Office.  

The TEEX solar installer course prepares participants to earn the apprentice-level Solar Photovoltaic Installer Certification through the Electronics Technicians Association (ETA) International. The TEEX curriculum is certified by ETA and students can take the certification exam on the last day of the course.

To kick off the training program, a new vertical-axis wind generator and solar hybrid street light has been installed outside the TEEX utilities and energy training facility on the Texas A&M Riverside Campus in Bryan, Texas.

This hybrid, environmentally friendly street light is believed to be unique in the Brazos Valley. The alternative energy device will not only generate and store energy to operate the light, but the street lamp has a wireless communication link that will provide information on wind and solar energy production and energy consumption by the street light. A wireless weather station is also integrated into the system and will collect data about wind speed and direction, along with solar intensity, temperature, humidity, and more.

TEEX is a member of TREEC, a group of Texas colleges and training organizations dedicated to investigating, developing and teaching curricula dedicated to post-secondary education in emerging energy technologies to meet the demand of the Texas workforce. Sponsored by the, TREEC's goal is to position Texas as a leader in renewable and sustainable energy commercialization through education.

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Bill Stansbury is Training Director for Utilities and Alternative Energy, with the Infrastructure Training & Safety Institute, a division of the Texas Engineering Extension Service, which has offered vocational electric power training since 1940.

　

　

　

Looking Back at the 2011 Cyber Security Year

It wouldn’t have surprised me if TIME Magazine had chosen the anonymous face of the hacker as their Person of the Year for 2011. From government agencies to electronics giants, hackers and attackers fought their way into personal information systems and websites, sometimes to make a point for a higher cause, and sometimes for a lesser cause to just steal valuable personal information.

For example, in the latest attack against Strategic Forecasting Inc. (or STRATFOR), a confidential client list was stolen, as were thousands of the clients’ credit card numbers. And some clients have reported fraudulent charges on their accounts.

However, it’s difficult to determine if the overall number of cyber incidents in 2011 was more or less significant than previous years, since the severity of such attacks is so subjective and often information is limited due to the reluctance of companies or agencies to report details. Yet the sheer volume of high-profile incidents covered heavily by news media outlets seemed significant, while at the same time, a large number of hacks were quite sophisticated and alarming from a national security perspective.

At least 58 highly-publicized hacking attacks occurred in 2011, with victim organizations worldwide ranging from law enforcement agencies, Fortune 500 companies and governments to defense agencies and military contractors.

While some highly reported hacks were ultimately deemed relatively trivial – briefly knocking the public website of the Central Intelligence Agency out of commission, for instance – such attacks were still part of a 2011 wave that showed many major government institutions seemingly quite vulnerable.

Additionally, at least two dozen major corporations were hit, from Apple, Sony and Citigroup to Research in Motion and Google. Media outlets like NBC, FOX and PBS were hit, too. Organizations like the European Union’s carbon trading market and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange were hacked by cybercriminals, while the International Monetary Fund was hit by cyber spies looking for a leg up on global negotiations. The goal of a hack of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce seemed to be to glean tidbits of information that might help the hackers target and infiltrate U.S. companies.

Now add to those attacks a number of far more serious cyber espionage infiltrations of strategically important U.S. companies, such as RSA, a major security vendor, and Lockheed Martin, a key defense contractor. Defense ministries in Australia, the U.S., Japan, Norway and NATO were hacked too. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which houses many U.S. nuclear secrets, was broken into as well.

Despite the existence of a global cyber-security industry whose cumulative worth is estimated to be $80 billion, the advantage is clearly with the attackers. The modern Internet was created for scientists and researchers to share information without security features. Nobody could have predicted that this Cold War technology of autonomous networks would become the singular backbone of international commerce and data exchange. Commercial enterprises and governments latched on and soared – but have never made their users accountable or identifiable. Plus, there are many ways to mask computer access. The result: near total anonymity for sophisticated hackers.

Traditional cyber defenses need to be greatly improved, because attackers in the coming years will not only increase the anonymous and virulent nature of their wares, but also improve on precision targeting that will be difficult to counter. Mobile technology, cloud computing and outsourcing all contribute to making cyber defense more complex than ever.

The one theme that pulls all this together is that Cyber Security is a very human problem, and this human bandwidth can best be addressed with effective training and education. Tackling the human side of cyber security is the first step in improving information risk management.

Note:  Online Cyber Security training is available at no charge through TEEX’s National Emergency Response and Rescue Training Center (NERRTC) under a National Homeland Security Training Grant. 

Other resources for training and information include:

http://ciastraining.com/

https://www.facebook.com/teexcyber

http://msisac.cisecurity.org/resources/videos/

Author:  Tim Thorson is the Training Coordinator for the Cyber Security Program at the Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX), part of The Texas A&M University System.  He assists public and private enterprises to ensure that the privacy, reliability, and integrity of the information systems that power our global economy remain intact and secure.  He has developed new cyber security training and technical assistance programs for various business and government sectors.