Commonwealth Cyber Initiative funds $1M for student cybersecurity projects

The Commonwealth Cyber Initiative has allocated $1 million toward experiential cybersecurity projects for students at universities across the state, the organization announced Thursday.

The seven projects involve student researchers from George Mason University, Longwood University, Marymount University, Old Dominion University, Radford University, the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech and William & Mary.

“By building experiential learning programs in central, coastal, southwestern and northern Virginia, CCI is giving students the hands-on experiences they need to enjoy successful careers in cybersecurity,” Luiz DaSilva, CCI executive director, said in a statement. “These programs are designed to grow to help meet the ever-expanding cybersecurity workforce needs of Virginia and the nation.”

CCI is a state-funded network of 21 Virginia universities and 320 faculty members that supports and funds research and projects to promote the cybersecurity workforce training pipeline in the commonwealth.

The funded projects include:

• Workforce development in cyberbiosecurity, including agricultural and data security management, Virginia Tech
• Cyber risk management and analytics, focusing on threat intelligence, defense and mitigation, William & Mary
• Cybersecurity monitoring and assurance training for port operations, a collaboration involving ODU, Longwood, U.Va. and the Port of Virginia
• Cyber startups, giving students real-world experience in starting and scaling cybersecurity businesses, Marymount
• Autonomous vehicles and transportation cyberphysical systems, including defending systems from bad actors, U.Va.
• Improving quality of internships, including assessments of students and businesses to create “measures of success” metrics, Virginia Tech
• Power system communication and cybersecurity, creating a workforce training program to defend the national power grid from cyberattacks, Virginia Tech