Who am I?

I am James A. Rome a scientist who retired at the end of 2003 from Oak Ridge National Laboratory after 32 years. I still consult. I also am president of Scientific Endeavors Corporation (http://www.sciend.com), publisher of the GraphiC Scientific Graphics Library for C.

Who am I not?

I am not Jim Rome the sportscaster. I had the name first. He is an evil clone.
I am not James A. Rome the excellent artist who lives in Jerome Arizona. But I do have three of his intaglios.

What do I do?


Research Projects


Computer security

Kerberos Task Force

Collaborations on Internet Security (CIS) was a federal interagency task force organized under the auspices of the Federal Networking Council. We tried to raise the level of Internet security by trying to introduce enhanced authentication, secure logon and file transfer, enhanced privacy, etc. across federal agencies. I was in charge of the Kerberos task force and have set up a Kerberos Web page that will help sites to install Kerberos at their facilities
Kerberos task force presentation at the CIS meeting held in Oak Ridge, TN on Feb. 13-14, 1997.
The draft final report of the Kerberos Test Bed and of the entire CIS project.

Talks on PKI delivered at the workshop A Public Key Infrastructure for Advanced Network Technologies (NIST, April 27–28, 12000) :

PKI—Deployment and Application Issues

PKI in the Small

Materials Microcharacterization Collaboratory (MMC)

In the Materials Microcharacterization Collaboratory we will join these Centers of Excellence into a single on-line interactive virtual laboratory. In it, we will give creative scientists, educators, and even students access to a new environment. One in which convenient, rapid
and dynamic interactions will be allowed to flow unencumbered by the limits of time, space and location. In this manner, we will not only foster but enhance their ability to conceive and execute new science in the area of materials research.

Security is required to protect the online devices as well as the data being collected and analyzed. The security plan for the MMC is outlined in this PowerPoint presentation.

MMC help pages:

Certificate Use for the MMC

Securing IIS5 and using JRun

Securing the Apache Web server

Securing the Apache2 Web Server on SuSE 9.1 Linux

Materials Science is a blend of a multitude of disciplines ranging from basic science to applied engineering, from physics and chemistry through metallurgy and ceramics, in which researchers combine their expertise with state-of-the-art instrumentation to push forward the frontiers of materials technology. Regardless of the substance being investigated, or the property being studied there is a universal procedure mv common to this field, -namely the characterization of the subject material. The team members of this project (ANL, LBNL, NIST, ORNL, and the Univ. of Illinois) collectively house virtually every characterization technique which employs electrons, ions, photons, x-rays, neutrons, mechanical and/or electromagnetic radiation to elucidate the microstructure matter.

Air traffic analysis

Air traffic data analysis

In 1990 and 1991, I was a key participant in a study of the capacity of the U.S. airspace for the FAA. I have used this experience to study traffic flow in busy sectors and to evaluate effects of instituting flow constrained areas (FCAs). I am currently doing consulting in this area for private companies.

Airline Arrival Queue Resequencing

In 1998 and 1999 I worked with Northwest Airlines (NWA)and Lockheed Martin Management and Data Systems under a contract from NASA to determine whether resequencing the landing queue at the NWA hubs could save the airline money. In order to do this, a financial model was created to evaluate the cost of landing each flight in each available slot (within 10 minutes of nominal). Then a method for determine the optimum landing sequence was developed. Most details of this study are proprietary. As an example, we show a delay chain using "as flown" events, and the effects of allowing the first plane to land 9 minutes earlier. Here is a link to a copy of the paper that was published in the Air Traffic Controllers Association Quarterly.

Solving the 4-D air traffic problem

In 2001 I studied management of Air Traffic in the busiest sector (at that time), ZOB48 over Cleveland. I devised a computer program and display to correctly solve the 4-D traffic management problem including an innovative display. This technique will easily and automatically manage all of the traffic in the sector, even in the presence of storms, and in a fail-safe manner. Here is a link to the report.

A separate report dealt with situalional awareness as the key to air traffic management. "If aircraft are to pick their own routes under free flight, there must be detailed awareness of the other flights and their intentions, and a method for assuring that the actions of one flight will not adversely affect another flight. This situational awareness is also a key need of air traffic controllers when they are forced to control an unfamiliar situation due to bad weather or closed airspace. We present a method that geometrically calculates and displays the regions of airspace that will be inaccessible to each flight—going on a vector towards these regions would lead to a lack of separation. This display also provides a measure of the air traffic complexity. For example, flights following each other (e.g., in miles-in-trail) present zero complexity while ascending and descending traffic cause increased complexity over level flight.

Network simulation



Ways To Contact


Education: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, 1964
Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, 1967
Electrical Engineer, 1967
Doctor of Science, 1971


Hobbies


Security links of interest