Cybersecurity in Augusta

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Engineering ECOSYSTEM Georgia Cyber Center seeks expansion, additional partnerships || By Damon Cline he heart of the region’s cyber economy beats deep within the walls of Fort Gordon’s Army Cyber Command and National Security Agency complex. But the arterial network circulating the industry’s lifeblood through the metro area is found 12 miles away at the Georgia Cyber Center in downtown Augusta. The innovation and education complex – billed as the single-largest state investment in cybersecurity – is where government, military, academia and the private-sector converge to build a symbiotic “ecosystem” that supports the fort while leveraging its assets to transform Augusta into a hotbed of high-tech activity. The $100 million, 332,000-square-foot complex is home to Augusta University and Augusta Technical College’s cyber education programs, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s cyber crime operation and a host of military contractors. The two-building complex sits along the riverfront on the Nathan Deal Campus for Innovation, named in honor of the former governor who personally fast-tracked the facility with dedicated funding through the Georgia Technology Authority. Just two years after completion, the complex’s only vacancy is a single 19,000-square-foot suite, which is being subdivided into smaller spaces for start-up companies. State and federal government agencies occupy 41% of the center’s space, followed by private-sector businesses at 33% and academic operations at 26%. The Augusta Chronicle recently sat down for an interview to get a progress report from the facility’s four main administrators: Eric Toler, the center’s executive director; Tammy O’Brien, Augusta Technical College’s dean of Cyber and Digital Education; Dr. Alexander Schwarzmann, dean of AU’s School of Computer and Cyber Sciences; and Michael Shaffer, AU’s executive vice president for strategic partnerships and economic development. 4 Cybersecurity in Augusta - September 2020
Below is a transcript of the interview, edited only for brevity and clarity. THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE: SCHWARZMANN: Given the unique nature of this facility, I think people would be interested in knowing how you work independently as well as interdependently. First of all we’re happy to be in this new facility. Our mission is education, research and service. Being in a place such as this allows us to develop some of our faculty’s research interests. Ten to 20 years ago, faculty were quite content doing research in their offices and not talking to anybody; today we realize some of the most interesting and challenging research questions come from industry or the government. So many of my researchers here look forward to exploring these relations. There are partnerships within the facility, including, for example, the GBI. THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE: So you’re beginning to see how being in the mix is creating synergies? SCHWARZMANN: O’BRIEN: TOLER: THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE: O’BRIEN: SHAFFER: Well, yes, and I think that being here together with our academic neighbor, Augusta Tech, we are developing agreements on how to better mesh our programs. And that’s just one dimension. The Georgia Cyber Center organizes and brings in people from outside the immediate community. For example, last December we signed our partnership with the Savannah River National Laboratory, and it started with me meeting the new director here. We are a little different entity. We are definitely hands-on, intensive, and industry- and workforce-driven. So how we teach is based on industry needs. You need that flexibility as things change in industry. We have associate’s degrees, fast-track programs, certificates – all allow the students to quickly get out in the field and have an opportunity for employment. I think that everybody’s goal here is very similar – to promote student education and employment. As Dr. Schwarzmann said, we have an articulation agreement to mesh courses together and work more on transferability. We work with the GBI. We have an agent that actually teaches our forensics course for us. That’s been a great partnership. As things evolve, we are finding more and more opportunities to interact with the partners in this building, and it’s been exciting for us as well. If you look at our mission statement, the first line is to create an ecosystem of government, academia and private industry. If you look at what an ecosystem is, it is about interdependencies that are created as well as individual visions and dependencies. And so there are many cases where if one of our partners doesn’t succeed, then many of us will not succeed. A great example (of a partnership) is that we’re about to stand up our security operations center, where we use AU’s IT department to monitor and secure the AU and health sciences networks. To operate that, they’re going to need students and they potentially could use service-members. That’s a training opportunity, but it also provides a service. Dr. Schwarzmann mentioned research. We’ve got to grow this campus to accommodate his mission. We need the private sector in here to also help with that. Although we all have our own visions, we can’t do those as effectively – or in some cases at all – without partnerships, and that’s the way we designed it. So what pieces, if any, are missing from the center? I really don’t think there’s anything missing. I would say the question is going to be more ‘What happens next?’ That’s the way it’s been evolving for us. There is always something new and exciting on the horizon for students to look forward to. When I think of what’s missing it is that we don’t have a history yet. I mean, we’re so young. We have just barely put the foundation in the ground. We’ve got a building, but the magic that happens in the building is going to have to do with what you just heard. Dr. Schwarzmann is world renowned and what he does is great to attract researchers, but I bet he would tell you that Fort Gordon and the Georgia Cyber Center helps in attracting (those researchers). I mean, we’re just scratching the surface of the talent that needs to be here in Augusta, and not just us here in this facility. I would tell you the other one is our reputation; we’re starting to get a reputation. As people hear about us, they start to inquire about us. And then the final one, which I think is key, which we’ve talked about in Augusta for a long time, is venture capital. For us to succeed beyond the walls and be able to really succeed, I believe that is a must. There’s a little bit of that happening, but we’ve really just laid the foundation now. SCHWARZMANN: I want to say that the foundation that is here already is being viewed as attractive for scientists and researchers. If you look nationally, a comprehensive research university is only able to recruit two computer scientists per year. The competition is tough. In the last 12 months we’ve brought in 14 scientists, which is seven times the national average. And we’re not stopping. I’m just about to open a search for 10 more scientists to join us. THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE: What are some of the other metrics? What does success look like, and how do you track that? Cybersecurity in Augusta - September 2020 5
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