|
|
|
|
|
CCI researchers and their industry partners won a $13 million Department of Defense contract to develop a 5G-enabled “smart warehouse” at the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany, Georgia.
|
|
|
|
|
|
A Message from the Executive Director
|
|
|
Dear Colleagues,
While still a new initiative, the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) is proving the power of uniting Virginia’s research community to win large influential projects.
I’m proud to announce that CCI researchers and their industry partners have won a $13 million Department of Defense contract to develop a 5G-enabled “smart warehouse” at the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany, Georgia.
It is no exaggeration to say we would not have won this contract if anyone university had pursued it by itself. Instead, CCI was critical in building the team and funding a substantial portion of the proposal development. The Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation leads the project, with Old Dominion University’s Sachin Shetty as the project’s technical lead.
CCI researchers from Virginia Tech, Old Dominion University, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Virginia, and George Mason University will collaborate across such disciplines as electrical and computer engineering, systems engineering, wireless communications, modeling, simulation and analysis to develop the low-latency, resilient and energy-efficient 5G network for the Marine Corps Logistics Base’s smart warehouse prototype. Four industry partners –– Intelligent Automation Inc., PerspectaLabs, Keysight, and B3 Advanced Communications –– are also part of the team.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Expanding the Research Team
|
|
|
I’m delighted to welcome our new research project coordinator Dana Hunter to the team. Dana brings extensive experience in grants program management and research development from her work at Georgetown University and the National Science Foundation. She’ll be setting up the Hub’s pre-award and research development activities to enable CCI researchers to pursue external funding. Watch for future communications from Dana where she’ll share current research development information and proposal tips of interest to the wider CCI research community. Contact Dana at danahunter@vt.edu.
|
|
We’ll be opening registration for the first CCI Cyber Camp in early April. Virginia undergraduate students can participate in this free camp to challenge their skills in competitions, hone their interview techniques, work on their CV, and network with some of the top cyber professionals in the nation.
David Oranchak, best known for cracking the Zodiac Killer code, is devising one of the challenges, so it’s sure to be an exciting time. The camp will be held virtually on three consecutive Saturdays––July 31, Aug. 7, Aug. 14––to help students fit it into their summer schedule. Please contact Kendall Beebe, kwbeebe@vt.edu, for more information.
|
|
Engaging High School Students
|
|
We don’t have enough cybersecurity professionals to fill open jobs in Virginia and across the nation. Led by Old Dominion University, the Coastal Virginia Node this month held a showcase for high school students interested in cybersecurity. More than 150 high schoolers attended to learn more about the educational offerings at universities and community colleges in Coastal Virginia. The best advocates were the region’s college students who gave excellent presentations about how they’re preparing for future careers in cybersecurity. I encourage you to watch the showcase.
|
|
Starting March 31, we will be sharing tips on Instagram about how to live a safer, cleaner cyber lifestyle. We're starting with some winning tipsters. Students in the Coastal Virginia Node designed prototypes focused on cyber hygiene awareness for the 2020 Innovate Cyber Challenge. The Net Pet team won the challenge and will be featured in this campaign. Keep up with our tip of the week by following CCI’s Instagram.
|
|
|
We are looking for bright graduate students to join our growing group on the Arlington campus to work on projects at the intersection of 5G/6G communications, autonomy, and cybersecurity. Our goal is to address some of the many fundamental challenges in designing next-generation network systems with guarantees on performance, robustness, and adaptability. The students will learn, develop and apply tools in network science, information theory, machine learning, statistical signal processing, optimization, game theory, stochastic control, and optimization. Interested candidates are encouraged to send their CVs to Marcos Vasconcelos, CCI research assistant professor, at marcosv@vt.edu.
|
|
April Webinar: Operations Resilience
|
|
Concept of Operations, aka ConOps, cover normal and abnormal operations, but most ConOps do not explicitly include what happens when the operators are the final defense in the response to cyber threats.
Ron Boring, distinguished scientist and department manager for the Human Factors and Reliability Department at Idaho National Laboratory, will discuss “A Cyber Concept of Operations for Human-in-the-Loop Resilience” at 11 a.m. April 15 for the final edition of our popular seminar series. He promises the discussion will be livelier than his name implies.
|
|
Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority
|
|
Earlier this month I had the opportunity to give a presentation about CCI to the Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority (VIPA), which was established last year to support the lifecycle of innovation. VIPA also oversees CCI, among other initiatives and centers of excellence. I’m excited to be working with this forward-thinking organization.
Cheers,
Luiz DaSilva
Executive Director
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
