Tech Arena Presentation
February 21, 2001 - 12:00 Noon Eastern

CoBRA
Chemical Biological Response Aide

Brad S. Gardner
Craig Levy, Sr.
CoBRA, Crisis Response and Analysis Group
Defense Group Inc.

SUMMARY

EIIP Tech Arena Online Presentation
Wednesday - February 22, 2001 - 12:00 Noon EST

CoBRA: Chemical Biological Response Aide

Brad Gardner
Craig Levy
Defense Group Inc.

Amy Sebring, Moderator
EIIP Technical Projects Coordinator

The EIIP Tech Arena featured a session complete with slides on CoBRA: Chemical Biological Response Aide from Defense Group Inc. Brad Gardner, Deputy for Product Development at DGI, and Craig Levy, Deputy for Product Development, were the guest speakers.

CoBRA was designed with input by First Responder teams across the country that participated in surveys and interviews in 2000. It provides a multitude of tools and data needed when responding to incidents ranging from HAZMAT to terrorism. CoBRA was designed to be used on touchscreen computers in the front seats of response vehicles. CoBRA actively generates incident and status reports that can be instantly communicated up the chain of command to help manage incident response activities.

BRAD S. GARDNER
Deputy for Product Development
Defense Group Inc.

Mr. Gardner is Deputy for Product Development at DGI, where he leads the software development team building the CoBRA family of products. In addition to his extensive design and implementation work on CoBRA products, he has worked with Automatic Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS) to include Ohio's state fingerprint system, Jamaica's national AFIS-based voter registration system, United Kingdom's National AFIS and a prototype system for South Africa.

Mr. Gardner provides scientific, engineering and technical support to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy and to local First Responder organizations dealing with chemical and biological terrorism. This support includes modeling and analysis of chemical and biological threats for both interior and outdoor environments. Additionally, Mr. Gardner has developed custom models and algorithms used in analysis of sensor systems.

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CRAIG LEVY, Sr.
Deputy, Responder Services
Defense Group Inc.

Mr. Levy began his career as a firefighter with the Palm Bay Fire Department (PBFD) in Palm Bay, Florida. While with the PBFD, he held the positions of Firefighter, Driver/Engineer, Lieutenant and Training Officer and was one of the founding members of the PBFD Special Response Team (SRT). Mr. Levy co-authored the SRT HAZMAT Medical Protocols, and as the SRT Safety Officer, he developed the team's Safety Plan, Personnel Monitoring Plan and Site Safety Plans for each response. Mr. Levy taught the HAZMAT Awareness course to the Palm Bay Police Department.

Osceola County, Florida recruited Mr. Levy as their Emergency Management Coordinator/ HAZMAT Captain to develop the County's Emergency Management Plans as well as HAZMAT emergency response, training and public education. In the position of Division Chief of Special Operations/Assistant Director of Emergency Management, Mr. Levy developed a Tactical and Hazardous Operations Response (THOR) team for Osceola County and researched and purchased all the team's equipment, developed Response SOPs and conducted training for the team in the area of HAZMAT response. Mr. Levy also taught HAZMAT awareness for the Osceola County Sheriff Department.

Mr. Levy writes a Domestic Preparedness column for National Fire & Rescue magazine and is a member of the International Society of Fire Service Instructors. He was a Plenary Panelist at the Technologies for Public Safety in Critical Incident Response Conference 2000, has been on staff for the Fire Department Instructor's Conference since 1990 and was adjunct faculty with Brevard Community College and Valencia Community College.

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