Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security joins Discovery Park

This month, Purdue’s Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS) will join Discovery Park. CERIAS is one of the world’s foremost centers for information assurance, security, privacy and resiliency research on cyber and cyber-physical systems. Its research spans the wide spectrum of technical and behavioral sciences and intersects all areas of Discovery Park’s strategic themes: global security, global health and global sustainability.

“We’re very excited to see CERIAS become part of Discovery Park,” says Tomás Díaz de la Rubia, Discovery Park’s executive director and chief scientist. “Cyber security is of critical importance not just to Discovery Park, but also for maintaining a safe and secure world, not just in the future, but urgently, today. We are thrilled to be at the cutting edge of this research.”

More than 100 affiliated faculty, from 22 academic departments across eight of Purdue’s colleges, are teaching and performing security-related research with CERIAS. Universally recognized as an academic pillar within the industry since its founding in 1998, the center’s faculty has undertaken more than $500M of externally funded research. CERIAS projects focus on the development of secure cyber-enabled systems and help protect the nation’s critical infrastructure and commercial enterprise networks. Affiliated faculty are currently performing research with a number of commercial partners in addition to the U.S. government’s departments of defense, intelligence, justice, homeland security and energy.

Launched from Purdue’s College of Science, CERIAS began as one of the “Original Seven” DHS/NSA centers for academic excellence in information assurance. “Throughout our history, we’ve been a leader in multidisciplinary research and in taking on new challenges,” says Professor Eugene H. Spafford, CERIAS founder and director emeritus. “The transition of CERIAS to a unit of Discovery Park is both an enhancement of and an example of that leadership, providing both a broader base of cross-disciplinary research and new resources to take on impressive challenges.”

As a cross-cutting center, CERIAS will work collaboratively with other centers housed in Discovery Park, across Purdue’s campus system, and with its industry consortium members across the country. This will enable CERIAS to further build on its extensive track record of working closely with industry organizations to address real-world issues. “By joining Discovery Park, CERIAS will expand its visibility and gain access to new collaborative opportunities with even more Purdue faculty and external partners. We are delighted to see these exciting avenues opening up for CERIAS and look forward to continuing our strong working partnership,” says Patrick Wolfe, the Frederick L. Hovde Dean of the College of Science.

 “This opportunity is one that our industry advisory board has strongly endorsed, as the CERIAS mission is well aligned with Discovery Park’s strategic direction,” says Professor Dongyan Xu, CERIAS interim director and professor of computer science. The board is composed of commercial companies and government agencies who advise, direct and collaborate with CERIAS-affiliated faculty on research and educational initiatives. “This will allow us even greater opportunities to contribute to Purdue’s research enterprise and increase our impact on addressing the growing cyber and cyber-physical threats that businesses and governments around the globe face today.”

Writer: Amy Schlueter, 765-496-7823, aschlue@purdue.edu
Sources: Cliff Wojtalewicz, 765-496-3961, cliffw@purdue.edu; Joel Rasmus, 765-494-7806, jrasmus@cerias.purdue.edu