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Friday 14 February 2008

Curt Weldon, Silicon Valley East

Delaware County Daily Times Monday, April 5. 1999
Silicon Valley East

By TIMOTHY LOGUE Of the Times Staff
Imagine the following Monday morning headline collecting dew on the driveway in the not so distant future: BOEING GOES ON HIRING FRENZY! According to U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon, R7, the odds of that happening in Ridley Township will improve exponentially if Boeing buys into his HUBS initiative.
Unveiled in late 1995, HUBS Hospitals, Universities, Businesses, and Schools - is Weldon's blueprint for creating a state-of-the-art, mid-Atlantic information system.
In Cliff Notes form, we're talking about an on-line super Yellow Pages for Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.
Objective: To build a four-state virtual partnership or "smart region" that can process and distribute information in real time to the connected institutions.
"Our goal is to create an international model that links together our medical centers, businesses, universities, and schools districts," Weldon said.
“The technology driver for the next millennium will be the one that offers the best access, and is best able to manage, use, store and receive data."
It's a far cry from railroads, steel and coal, to be sure.
To oversee the HUBS initiative, Weldon in February 1996 tapped the services of Dr. Da Hsuan Feng, a nuclear physicist at Drexel University.
Feng took a leave of absence from Drexel last spring to become general manager of the HUBS project for the high-tech research and engineering giant Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC).
Experts in computer system development and integration, the San Diego-based SAIC signed on to HUBS in 1997 in a management capacity.
"Basically, SAIC is responsible for identifying the best partners for HUBS and the best collaborators in the region," Feng said. "Plus, Congressman Weldon wanted a management team that's experienced with government contracts."
SAIC, according to Weldon, is the Department of Defense's largest consultant, the recipient of thousands of contracts annually that add up to billions of dollars.
"In the last three years we've witnessed the creation of very, very robust pipes

capable of transferring massive amounts of data across the four states in what we would call real time," Feng said.
"We've moved away from the need for a big, centrally-located super-computer," he said. "With the HUBS program, we're creating the middleware and software that gives the user the ability to translate information into a common language."
“I believe the Baltimore, Philadelphia, Trenton, and Newark, with a slight detour through Wilmington, will be the next century's major technological corridor," Feng predicted. "Pittsburgh will also be growing by leaps and bounds." Kei Koizilmi, a science and budget policy analyst at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, said Pennsylvania's schools are its most precious resource.
"The only thing states can do is go after the competitively-awarded dollars, and Pennsylvania, relies on the strength of its' research universities," Koizumi said,
In addition to more than 100 hospitals, the Delaware Valley alone boasts one of the highest densities of colleges and universities in the world.
Maryland, for its part, is home to the National Institutes of Health, NASA, the National Institute of Science and Technology and the corporate headquarters of Lockheed Martin and Bell Atlantic.
California is the only state that receives more federal research and development dollars then Maryland.
Add New Jersey and Delaware and the coalition represents 12 percent of the nation's population.
"The louder your voice,' the more you're heard," said Rocco Martino, chairman and CEO of CyberFone in Wayne, of the partnership. “There's nothing magical about the four states other than our common goal of becoming a powerful virtual region."
Feng claimed that while cooperation is key, a uniform concern for all HUBS participants is security.
"Health care providers are concerned about confidentiality of patient records, the military has its secrets, and pharmaceutical companies want to protect their information," Feng said.
"HUBS allows these institutions to sit on their data and decide what should and shouldn't be released. Whether it's a gigantic corporation or a one or two man show, everyone has the same protections.”

Weldon said HUBS has received about $17 million dollars in overall funding, $5 million of it targeted at pilot school districts. A $100 million price tag is most often associated with the project.
"It's a very exciting opportunity for us," said Morrisville School District Superintendent John Gould, whose Bucks County district was one singled out by SAIC.
"Our goal is to develop a system that allows our students to extend into the community where they can become problem solvers,” Gould said.
In addition to lunch and recess, 21st century K -12 students can expect to take part in video conferencing and distance learning projects with districts from other states.
Gould offered one snapshot he expects to see:
"In the next few years students will work on programs where they can actually go back and change certain variables in history and see how things would have been different today."
Instead of a backpack full of papers, Gould said every child will have his or her own digital folder.
Teachers will be able to obtain instructional materials on-line and create new curriculum through collaboration with a colleague across the state.
Crozer Keystone Vice President and Chief Quality Officer Ian Jones sees limitless possibilities in the health care industry.
"Using our burn unit as an example, let's say a cruise liner at sea has a fire in the engine room and there are serious injuries," Jones said. "What do you do?
Once HUBS is in place, we'll be able to manage that patient from thousands of miles away. We could have linkages with ships at sea, oil platforms, and other countries.”
Michael Feldman, lecturer in surgical pathology at University of Pennsylvania, said forensic medicine would benefit as well.
"For a pathologist from a small office, this will enable them to remotely and instantaneously gain access to the leading 'experts in the field,” Feldman said. "In essence, we can project our experts wherever we choose."
A robotic microscope stationed in Maryland at Johns Hopkins University will digitally scan and relay images to doctors in Philadelphia, Trenton or Pittsburgh.
"Traditionally we take glass slides and make a diagnosis under the microscope," Feldman said. "Here, you can have 50 remote locations looking at the same digitally-scanned images, each with the ability to control the microscope."
Jones said HUBS could also save travel related time and expense.
"You can go to a wonderful one-hour videoconference, full of experts, without boarding a plane," he said.
Weldon is quick to highlight the relationship between a region's technological proficiency and the amount off federal research and development dollars it receives.
"Federal agencies fund billions of dollars in research and development in countless areas, ranging from national security to environmental technologies and from e1ectronics and computers to medicine and health care," he said.
"But very few of the region's research institutions and companies are aware of what type of projects the federal government is willing to fund."
California, for example, receives roughly seven times the federal R&D funding of Pennsylvania, according to the National Science Foundation.
"Our share in that pie is less than proportional," Feng said matter-of-factly.
Weldon said it's the combination of quality institutions and the political lay of the land that makes the four-state coalition such an attractive destination for business and federal dollars.
"At one point in time, Pennsylvania had 25 House seats," he said. "Now we have 21 and, after the 2000 census, we'll lose two more."
Add on Maryland, New Jersey and Delaware.
"Alone, Pennsylvania doesn't have the political clout to get R&D funding," said Weldon, who chairs the House Armed Services Committee's Research and Development Subcommittee. "But, combined, we are talking about 43 seats in the House and 8 Senators."
California, by comparison, has 52 seats in the House.
"Without a doubt we have the institutions to compete with California or anyone else," Weldon said.
Essentially, that's the message he'll pass along to an international collection of experts in research and development at the Tech Trends 2000 Conference, running today through Wednesday at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.”
"This is the first and largest technology conference of its kind in this country's history," Weldon said.
Tech Trends will explore the future of federal R&D funding. In addition, hundreds of government, private and academic institutions will display their latest technologies. A total of 15 breakout focus groups are scheduled over the course of the event. Admission for high school, college and graduate students is free.
"This is great opportunity for a student in Marcus Hook or Chester to learn about cutting-edge technology," Weldon said.
"It gives them the chance to tailor their careers to where the dollars are going to be."
"It used to be factories, money or raw resources, but now the real commodity is knowledge," said Gould.
"That is our capital."

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