VSU receives $1 million for new AI and cybersecurity center

The million-dollar check that Rep. Jennifer McClellan brought to Virginia State University on May 5 might fund a new AI research center on the Ettrick campus, but for the dean of the of the College of Engineering and Technology, it is more about the students than a physical structure.

“At its core, this initiative is about people,” Dawit Haile told attendees at a check-presentation ceremony in the front hall of the engineering school. “It is about preparing the next generation of engineers, scientists and innovators.”

The $1.03 million check presented by McClellan, D-Virginia, will support the creation of the VSU Center for Generative AI & Industrial Cybersecurity. Its mission is to be a hub of research, education and workforce development at the meeting point of artificial intelligence and cyberdefense. It will boost hands-on student training and faculty research to develop solutions for safe and secure AI-enabled infrastructure.

It was the second presentation of federal funding to Tri-City area entities in two days. On May 4, McClellan presented Hopewell with a check for $1.09 million that will pay for improvements in stormwater runoff along Heretick Avenue, a mid-20th century corridor with a long history of flooding issues due to archaic infrastructure.

Data ‘king over voice’

In her remarks at the VSU ceremony, McClellan said the concept of the center hit home for her “in my previous life” as an employee of Verizon. When she started there, Verizon was focused mostly on landline telephones; when she left, it had grown into a wireless and broadband communications provider.

“I saw in my time how rapidly technology changed,” she said. Since then, McClellan said, we have seen “how rapidly data became king over voice.”

She also recalled a presentation from a technology futurist in 2018 how AI would not only be used for good purposes but also for bad. She also said she thought to herself how well-prepared or unprepared government and defense systems were for the AI onslaught.

“That’s what this center is all about,” McClellan, who sits on the House Energy & Commerce Committee, said. “This center is going to ensure that all of the policy and legal and ethical framework that has governed human interactions also governs AI … that we are able to ensure that human beings control AI and not the other way around.”

Roving and gaming technology … and Spot

VSU works closely with the National Security Agency and NASA, so the center is expected to bolster those relationships. The school is an NSA-designated Center of Academic Excellence in Cyberdefense and a member of the NASA-funded Virginia Space Grant Consortium. Haile told the crowd that VSU engineering students will present its latest roving-technology this month to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

In addition to the NASA-related research, VSU engineering students also demonstrated some other projects during the ceremony, including new gaming technology. The star of the ceremony, however, was “Spot,” a Boston Dynamics robotic dog. VSU is working with the company to install GPS and AI technology in the robot that will eventually allow it to respond to all kinds of voice commands. It could even lead visitors on the VSU campus on short tours and answer questions.

Ceremony attendees marveled at Spot’s real dog-like attributes. It approached visitors much like a curious dog would do. It sat. It lay down. It went up and down stairs.

It even bobbed its head up and down and wagged its behind much like a happy dog would do.

“Oh my God! I love him,” one visitor beamed. “He’s so cute.”

Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) has won numerous awards during his 40-year journalism career. A Petersburg native, Bill is a 1984 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond with a degree in mass communications. He specializes in coverage of breaking news, crime, government, and local/state/national politics. He is an avid history buff and a lifelong Washington Commanders fan. Reach him at [email protected] with news tips and story suggestions.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: VSU receives $1 million for new AI and cybersecurity center

Reporting by Bill Atkinson, Petersburg Progress-Index / The Progress-Index

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