The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has appointed the University of Houston to lead the Center of Excellence on Borders, Trade and Immigration Research, funded by a $3.5 million renewable grant.
Maria Burns, director of the Center for Logistics and Transportation Policy and visiting assistant professor in the UH College of Technology was appointed as the lead for the Center's workforce development and as principal investigator (PI) for a Risk Assessment and Participatory Operational Assessment (POA) research. This global logistics and transport-related project will improve processing times by eliminating operational delays, errors, and waste occurring at points of entry. It will further measure, assess, and predict the impact of operational security processes to facilitate legitimate trade and travel across US borders.