Cyber Camp winners! New calls for proposals and more!

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July-August 2021

The Deloitte CCI Cyber Camp Winners are...

A Message from the Executive Director

Dear <<First Name>>,

We’re excited to announce the winners of the first Deloitte CCI Cyber Camp, which finished on Aug. 16 with an award ceremony. After three weekends, 42 challenges, mock job interviews, and a CV writing workshop, our top scorers are:

First Place: Jason Jabbour, systems and information engineering, senior, University of Virginia
Second Place: Christian Jackson, computer science, senior, Old Dominion University
Third Place: Samantha Barry, cybersecurity engineering, sophomore, George Mason University

Collaborative Research CFP
and Cyber Challenge

Our research collaboration call for proposals is out. CCI researchers, please consider submitting your ideas by Aug. 31––we’ve had terrific results in the past. Check out last year’s funded projects to learn more about the collaborative research being done our network.

LEARN MORE: COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH CFP

Looking for students with great ideas: Virginia Cyber Challenge

Are you an undergraduate or graduate student interested in 5G technology and cybersecurity? Are you looking to build a commercializable technology product? Learn more and work with your university faculty to earn $20,000 in the first phase and $32,000 in the next phase for your team and a chance to be part of the Virginia Cybersecurity Challenge! The deadline is Sept. 3.

LEARN MORE: VIRGINIA CYBERSECURITY CHALLENGE

You can find all the best equipment in the NextG Testbed

Pleased to report we are one of the first, if not the first, university testbeds to have the latest advanced mmWave equipment from InterDigital, Inc. The mmWave provides small cell high-speed communication. Our NextG testbed supports both a sub-6GHz end-to-end 5G network, with open source and commercial components, and mmWave links. Efat Fathala and Vikas Krishnan Radhakrishnan, graduate students from Old Dominion University and Virginia Tech respectively, are shown experimenting with mmWave equipment from InterDigital, Inc.

Fall Seminar Series kicks off with a look at Non-Terrestrial Networks and 6G

Nishith D. Tripathi is our first speaker for the fall series at 11 a.m. August 30. Nishith will be discussing Non-Terrestrial Networks, which include satellite communications, high altitude platform systems, and air-to-ground networks. By using 5G technology, these networks are transforming transportation, energy, public safety, eHealth, and more. Securing 5G-based networks, whether on Earth or above it, is crucial. He’ll also give us a glimpse into what the 6G world could look like. He’s a former researcher with Samsung Research America and currently an adjunct faculty member at Virginia Tech, where he teaches cellular communications, guides students in their research projects, and collaborates with faculty members and industry partners on various research projects.

This is a hybrid in-person/online event. Those who attend in-person will be able to see the new Cyber Living Innovation Lab, which is home to the George Mason University-led CCI Northern Virginia Node, on Mason’s Arlington campus.

Automotive Cybersecurity

The CCI Southwest Virginia region’s workforce development Cyberteam VIP project brought together about 40 students to work on automotive cybersecurity. Alan Michaels, research professor of electrical and computer engineering at Virginia Tech, led the project with an assist from CCI Fellow Kevin Heaslip. Virginia Tech electrical engineering majors Calvin Truong and Joseph Schatz are exploring building an emergency stop for the test vehicle in order to maintain safety during the cybersecurity testing of the vehicle.

CCI researchers nab
IEEE INFOCOM 2021 Best Paper Award

INFOCOM, a top computer network and wireless communications conference known for its rigorous review process, awarded “mCore: Achieving Sub-millisecond Scheduling for 5G MUMIMO Systems,” a Best Paper Award at IEEE INFOCOM 2021.

The paper was written by Ph.D students Yongce Chen and Yubo Wu along with Tom Hou, Bradley Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Wenjing Lou, the W. C. English Professor of Computer Science; all are at Virginia Tech. Congratulations to these CCI researchers!

Faculty Resources: Cyber-Physical Systems Course Materials

Looking to add Cyber-Physical Systems materials to your courses? This project was funded by the CCI 2020 experiential learning program. The University of Virginia courses integrate materials from multiple areas and emphasize the intersection between the cyber and the physical. The UVA researchers hope to impact the broader CPS community by providing faculty such resources as slides, homework, handouts, labs, projects to create or integrate all or some of our materials into their courses to train future CPS engineers, noted Kelley Tobler, program manager CPS National Research Traineeship Program at UVA.

We’ll be adding more CCI-funded resources for faculty in the future.

INNOVATE Cyber helps undergrads build marketable skills

If you’re a Virginia undergraduate who wants to develop the skills employers are looking for in the cybersecurity field, INNOVATE Cyber can help. Students work on a team to identify a cybersecurity challenge and then create the prototype solution. It’s a fun way to learn by doing while building your career at the same time. Applications are due Aug. 29—the program kicks off Sept. 11. It’s led by the CCI Coastal Virginia region and open to Virginia students across the state. Learn more

Apply through the Virginia Space Grant Consortium Commonwealth STEM Industry Internship Program (CSIIP) common application. Email questions innovatemonarchs@odu.edu.