Center for Secure Cyberspace - Louisiana Tech University

Center for Secure CyberspaceLouisiana Tech University and Louisiana State Universityhave joined forces in the fight for a more securecyberspace. Led by one of Tech’s computer scienceprofessors, Dr. Vir Phoha, the team of eight researchersin the fields of computer science and electrical engineeringis gearing up for five years of intensive research andimpressive goals.In June of this year, the Louisiana Board of Regentsawarded over $3 million in funding to Tech and LSU tosupport five years of research in this new and expandingfield of secure cyberspace. Tech is housing the Centerfor Secure Cyberspace, which will be the venue to turnresearch into foundations and relationships benefitingnot only north Louisiana, but also the nation and theworld.Universities aren’t the only ones looking toward thefuture of cyberspace. This year the U.S. Air Force hasannounced that Barksdale Air Force Base, just 70 milesfrom Tech, is the home for the newly developed AirForce Cyber Command Center (AFCyber). This Centeris focused on protecting the safety of our nation’sshare of cyberspace, from the home front to the battlelines. The CSC will play a big role in providing researchfor the Air Force, while building strategic collaborativerelationships with AFCyber and between national andinternational academic and industrial partners.“The project will achieve the next level of convergence in thetechnologies that interact directly with the physical world andwith humans in dynamic and uncertain environments, cognizantof dynamic goals and the evolving physics, seamlesslyspanning time and space to monitor change, and collaboratingwith humans to actuate purposeful distributed response.”Vir PhohaThe members of the CSC plan to change the face ofresearch in this field, developing core research foundationsin evolvable sensor hardware and software andcorresponding transformational information technologiesfor the early prediction, detection, and control of anomalousbehavior in cyberspace. All of this will be donein the world-class multi-institutional, multi-disciplinarycenter of excellence being developed at Tech.Research areas such as dynamic network formulation,secure information dissemination, data fusion and predictionof disaster precursors, and visualization and validationwill be the focus of the team over the coming years.Support for the CSC is strong, including such centersas Tech’s Center for Entrepreneurship and InformationTechnology (CEnIT), Enterprise Center, and TechnologyBusiness Development Center (TBDC) and LSU’sLouisiana Business and Technology Center.Although the field of cyberspace research and securityis ever-changing, Tech plans to be on the forefront,paving a new cyber-road toward the advancement of ournation’s security.Dr. Bruce Willson, along with Harvey Cragon, prepare toplace Harvey’s plaque on the Distinguished Alumni Board.Distinguished Alumnus HonoredThe College of Engineering and Science has namedHarvey Cragon as its distinguished alumnus. A 1950graduate of Louisiana Tech in electrical engineering,he also pursued studies at UCLA and SMU. He servedin the U.S. Army and subsequently went to work forSouthern Bell and Hughes Aircraft before joining TexasInstruments in 1958. He was principal architect of theTI Advanced Scientific Computer, developed during1966-71. At the time of its completion, it had the world’sgreatest processing capability, and is widely referencedas the landmark in high-speed computer design. Healso designed and assisted in the construction of thefirst integrated circuit computer that used semiconductormemory, another first, in addition to countless otherdesigns and innovations in microcomputers.In 1984, he left Texas Instruments to pursue a secondcareer, named to the Ernest Cocknell, Jr. CentennialEngineering Chair in the Department of Electrical andComputer Engineering at the University of Texas atAustin. His service there was completed in 1999. Today,Harvey is retired and working on a book about computersthat ran submarines during World War II.