CCI connecting students and careers

View this email in your browser

December 2021

A Message from the Executive Director

Congratulations to all students who are graduating this month! Giving students the skills they need for a successful cybersecurity career is one of our main priorities at CCI. We’ve been sharing numbers from several of our workforce development programs—nearly 300 registrants for the Deloitte CCI Cyber Camp in July and 285 attendees at the CCI Internship Fair in October—and the results are starting to roll in.

A couple of recent success stories illustrate the impact that these programs can have.

This summer’s Deloitte CCI Cyber Camp first led to an internship and now a job as a cybersecurity developer with start-up Auspex Labs Inc. for Paulina Keifer, a junior majoring in cybersecurity engineering at George Mason University. The cyber camp not only helped her develop new skills but put her resume into the hands of hiring managers. She hadn’t considered applying to start-ups until the camp. Her new job is part-time to accommodate her class schedule.

Paulina was looking for a career that would keep her engaged and enable her to make a difference as well as earn a good salary. The cybersecurity field ticked all the boxes. “The realm of cybersecurity is multifaceted, and there is something for everybody,” she said.

Paulina recommends that students practice Capture the Flag challenges to hone their skills. “They give you a taste of some of the different aspects of cybersecurity and are really fun to solve no matter what you like,” she said.

Pei Wang is graduating this month with an MS from Virginia Tech’s Department of Computer Science and a job with Microsoft as a data scientist. A graduate research assistant for CCI Research Associate Professor Feras Batarseh, Pei credits working on CCI-funded artificial intelligence (AI) projects with helping him land the Microsoft job. Collaborating with a team and putting his classroom skills into practice made all the difference.

Pei also found that data science competitions are a great way to learn the skills needed to become a data scientist. “Even reproducing other’s solutions is super helpful,” he added.

Students Go Big with CyberExL

Thirteen students from three Coastal Virginia universities—Norfolk State University, William & Mary, and Old Dominion University (ODU)—will be participating in an interdisciplinary experiential learning program designed to give graduate students hands-on experience to help their future careers in cybersecurity and technology.

CyberExL is in its second year of partnering with industry, faculty, researchers, and university administrators to provide experiential learning opportunities for CCI Coastal Virginia graduate students. It will be exciting to find out what opportunities develop for students from this program.

LEARN MORE

Virginia Secretary of Labor visits
CCI Northern Virginia

Virginia Secretary of Labor Megan Healy (right) and Liza Wilson Durant (left)

We’re delighted CCI is drawing high-level visitors to learn more about our mission. Virginia Secretary of Labor Megan Healy (right) recently met with Liza Wilson Durant (left), director of CCI Northern Virginia Node (CCI NoVa), at the CCI NoVa Living Innovation Lab located at George Mason University’s Arlington Campus. The lab includes approximately 4,000 square feet of dedicated space for cybersecurity research, training, and experiential learning.

The lab includes a 5G testbed and robotic platforms to evaluate 5G performance and security vulnerabilities. CCI research teams study the impact of 5G on the internet of things, Industry 4.0, and smart manufacturing, as well as the vulnerability of the supporting power grid and building automation systems.

Also, read more about last month’s visit from Finland’s Economic Affairs Minister.

CCI Fellow Milos Manic Named
President-Elect of IEEE
Industrial Electronics Society

A hearty congratulations to CCI Fellow Milos Manic on his recent election by the members of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Industrial Electronics Society (IES) as the new president-elect effective Jan. 1, 2022. Manic, who is also an IEEE Fellow, was elected from a slate of five candidates spanning four continents. An internationally recognized leader in cybersecurity research, Manic is a professor of computer science at VCU Engineering and director of the Virginia Commonwealth University’s Cybersecurity Center.

IEEE is the world's largest technical professional society. Its Industrial Electronics Society has more than 10,000 members and focuses on the latest developments in intelligent control systems, robotics, automation, advanced manufacturing, and power electronics for the enhancement of industrial and manufacturing processes.

Virginia Alliance for Secure Computing and Networking (VASCAN) presented the Founders Award to CCI Fellow Hongyi Wu, director of Old Dominion University's School of Cybersecurity. The award recognizes Wu’s substantial contribution to the advancement of cybersecurity in the commonwealth. Wu joined ODU in 2016 to lead the cybersecurity program. Under his direction, a group of 11 students with no research funding has grown to more than 950 students and $10 million in actively funded research projects. Congratulations for a job exceptionally well done!

Daphne Yao, Virginia Tech computer science professor, in a CCI-funded project put Virginia’s COVIDWISE contact-tracing app to the test and discovered a strong basis for user trust. Findings are being published in IEEE Computer Society.

Students from 43 universities worldwide participated in the William & Mary’s Global Innovation Challenge (WMGIC) x North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Allied Command Transformation (ACT) Cybersecurity Challenge held last month. Undergraduate students came from Turkey, the United Kingdom, German, France, Poland, and Virginia.

Happy New Year!

Thank you for working with us this past year to help build Virginia into a global leader in cybersecurity. Wishing you a relaxing holiday season and a wonderful new year!