KOCHI: Despite leaving Kerala for the United States at the age of four, Akshay Pottathil, from Thiruvannur in the district is still connected to his homeland. This time, his visit to India has a clear purpose. For, he is a guest of the Central Government to Gujarat Forensic Sciences University to talk about Homeland Security, in which Akshay has been working all these years for the US Government.
The Central Government has shown an interest in starting an in-house homeland security centre for the country and Akshay has been called to conceptualise the idea.
Akshay, co-director of the Center for Information Convergence and Strategy at San Diego State University, flew down to Kozhikode after his session in Gujarat to talk about the concept of connecting cities and the importance of Public-Private Partnership.
On his work, Akshay said, “I was able to design the target mapping system for the executive office of the US President for counter-narcotics, which is one of my big projects. Soon after that, a Next-Generation Incident Command (NGIC) system was designed for the US Department of Homeland Security Center. If a disaster or an attack happens, NGIC teaches us how to tackle it. It was the success of my first project which landed me the opportunity to develop NGIC. All these happened between 2007 and 2009. Later, Red Cross, Navy and similar organisations approached me for developing similar technology.”
He added the Left of Boom Conference headed by the centre was his great achievement. “The conference featured international delegates talking about cross-fertilisation of proactive threat mitigation strategies between civilian and military domains. It also provided a venue for open dialogue and exchange of ideas between public and private organisations. I have invited Kozhikode Mayor Thottathil Raveendran to our next conference in 2020,” said Akshay.
On what led him to Homeland Security, Pottathil said, “Post 9/11, the homeland security was created. The nation was going through a big change. Doors were opened for college-goers like me, then.”
In 2013, Pottathil was honoured with ‘Faculty of the Year’ in Homeland Security and granted the second Presidential Leadership Fund Award. His work on data fusion and pattern recognition is being referred to by officials in North America, Europe, South East Asia, and the Middle East.