Testing and Evaluation for Emergency Response Equipment (TEERE)

Project Description

One result of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks was an increase in federal funding available to local level emergency responders for purchases of equipment needed for improved emergency preparedness. Dr. G. Kemble Bennett, dean of the Dwight Look College of Engineering, director of the Texas Engineering Experiment Station and vice chancellor of the Texas A&M University System, approached the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Domestic Preparedness (ODP) with an idea about how to help the responder community with their purchasing decisions. The concept was to provide relevant information in a comparative, Consumer Reports-type format about how responder equipment performed under the same scenarios and conditions that would be encountered in the field. The result of these discussions was a project called Testing and Evaluation for Emergency Response Equipment (TEERE), in which Texas A&M Engineering agencies collaborated with ODP and other federal agencies to structure a testing and evaluation program and pilot test the project. As part of the Texas A&M Engineering team, Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) supported the Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) and the Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) by participating in program structuring activities and meetings and by providing test design, analysis, and documentation for the pilot equipment test — an assessment of gas-powered concrete cutoff saws.

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