May 26, 2010
Colloquium Topic: Doing APL Stuff in Baghdad
The speaker recently completed a tour performing duties of Operations Research/Systems Analysis at the Joint CREW Composite Squadron One (JCCS-1) headquarters in Camp Victory, Baghdad, Iraq. JCCS-1 has been the command within United States Forces - Iraq (USF-I) primarily tasked with countering radio-controlled improvised explosive devices by means of electronic warfare. During his tour, Naim received letters of appreciation for various contributions from the Rear Admiral serving as the deputy chief of staff for Communications and Information Systems of Multi-National Forces - Iraq; from the Major General serving as Deputy Commanding General of Multi-National Corps - Iraq; and from the Commanding General of United States Forces - Iraq. The main purpose of this talk is to acquaint the APL community with the speaker's deployment and with some of the ways in which JHU/APL made critical contributions in direct support of our troops in combat. The talk will include a brief overview of the RCIED fight in OIF and observations of our electronic warfare campaign.
Colloquium Speaker: Naim Merheb
Naim Merheb, PE joined APL upon receiving a B.S. in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic University of his native Puerto Rico in 1999. He later received a M.S. in electrical engineering from The Johns Hopkins University in 2003 while working at APL, where he has been chiefly involved in developing architectures for the next generations of the major DoD satellite communications networks, and in assessing the intercept vulnerability and exploitability of existing and proposed wireless communications systems. He is a senior satellite communications systems engineer with the Applied Information Sciences Department. Current research interests include signals intelligence, electromagnetic propagation, and dynamic spectrum allocation methods and policies. His assessment work involves a large component of field testing that often takes him to work in a variety of remote locations and conditions; 'extreme engineering' would thus feature prominently in his list of hobbies. Naim studies Arabic and speaks Spanish, English and French. A Jesuit alumnus, he teaches elementary and high-school Math and English at two of their schools for lower-income youths in Baltimore.