President Broderick to Sign Cybersecurity Educational Agreement Between ODU and TCC
February 02, 2017
Sachin Shetty
Old Dominion University President John R. Broderick will join Edna Baehre-Kolovani, president of Tidewater Community College, and Glenn DuBois, chancellor of the Virginia Community College System, at a signing ceremony Wednesday, Feb. 8 for an articulation agreement between ODU and TCC in the field of cybersecurity.
The signing, which will also be attended by Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, will formalize connections between the Hampton Roads institutions in cybersecurity curriculum and instruction. The event will take place at 10:30 a.m. at the Patrick Henry Building in Richmond.
Through the agreement, students graduating with an associate's degree in Information Systems Technology and relevant cybersecurity coursework from TCC will be able to seamlessly transition to Old Dominion University's cybersecurity major, offered through the Interdisciplinary Studies program in the College of Arts and Letters.
Brian Payne, Old Dominion's vice provost for academic affairs, said the articulation agreement reflects the University's hands-on, multidisciplinary approach to cybersecurity. Old Dominion recognized this critical need in launching its cybersecurity initiative in 2015.
The University hired internationally recognized scholar Hongyi "Michael" Wu as the first Batten Chair of Cybersecurity. Wu has led the creation of the University's Center for Cybersecurity Education and Research, which brings together the work of more than two dozen faculty members at Old Dominion University.
"Our Center for Cybersecurity Education and Research is committed to bridging disciplines and connecting our activities to economic and workforce development," Payne said.
Payne said ODU has blended coursework with research, bringing together faculty, staff, students, community members and other partners to discuss how to study and teach cybersecurity.
The effort to develop the articulation agreement was coordinated through the Hampton Roads Cybersecurity Education, Workforce, and Economic Development Alliance, a collaborative initiative funded by the National Initiative on Standards and Technology involving multiple institutions, businesses, and other partners.
ODU Joins Cybersecurity Centers of Excellence
In recognition of its burgeoning cybersecurity expertise, Old Dominion is also joining two prestigious centers of excellence, funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Energy (DOE), to advance security and resilience in cyber-support infrastructure.
The DOE-funded effort, the Cyber Resilience Energy Delivery Consortium, is a five-year, $28.1 million initiative that will develop cyber-resilient energy delivery systems for the electric power and oil and gas industries. ODU researchers will join a consortium of 11 universities and national laboratories to improve the resilience and security of the cyber networks that serve as the backbone of the infrastructure that delivers energy to the nation.
For that effort, Sachin Shetty, associate professor in Old Dominion's Department of Modeling, Simulation and Visualization Engineering, will conduct studies in security risk assessment and software-defined networking for detection and classification of the impact of attacks on energy delivery systems.
The DHS-funded Center of Excellence, the Critical Infrastructure Resilience Institute (CIRI), is a five-year, $20 million effort to conduct research and education enhancing the resiliency of the nation's critical infrastructures. For that effort, Shetty will develop risk measurement techniques to assess cyber-risk to the area of cyberinsurance.
As a result, cyber-insurers will be better able to analyze the risk of retailers and ultimately create insurance policies tailored to cover cyber losses.