Dr. Bilal Ayyub

Dr. Bilal Ayyub is a Professor and Director of the Center for Technology and Systems Management (CTSM) at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is head of a team at the Intelligent Systems Laboratory (ISL), within CTSM, assisting Robotic Technology Inc. developing the Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR). Drs. Ayyub and Finkelstein have cooperated on a number of projects for more than a decade, including a counter-terrorism study concerning Risk Analysis and Management for Critical Asset Protection. Dr. Ayyub is a world famous expert on uncertainty and risk analysis.

As a notorious former Secretary of Defense famously noted: “There are known knowns. These are things that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.”

[Please click here for a Presentation on Uncertainty and Ignorance in Knowledge]

CAPRA (Critical Asset and Portfolio Risk Analysis) is a unique methodology and process, developed by CTSM, which can be used to quantitatively assess risks for a single asset, a portfolio of assets, or a region, due to natural hazards or human-caused hazards. Thus it can be used to protect nuclear power and chemical plants, bridges, manufacturing facilities, national monuments, densely populated areas, and other critical assets, from a terrorist threat or a natural disaster.

[Please click here for a Presentation on Critical Asset and Portfolio Risk Analysis]