The University of Texas at Dallas has been redesignated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity for cyber research for its “innovative and impactful” research contributions and its educational programs that train new generations of cybersecurity professionals.

UTD said that since 2004, it has earned Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) designations from the National Security Agency (NSA) in three categories: cyberdefense (2004), cyber research (2008) and cyber operations (in 2015, as the first school in Texas to receive the designation).

The university said it’s one of about a dozen institutions in the nation and four in Texas to receive all three designations, which are managed by the NSA’s National Cryptologic School.

“Having these three designations together means we’re teaching skills that prepare students to graduate and immediately apply for federal-level, cyber-defense positions and to have the skills necessary to counter attacks by nation-state actors and criminals,” said Kevin Hamlen, executive director of UTD’s Cyber Security Research and Education Institute and the Louis Beecherl Jr. Distinguished Professor of computer science in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science.

Building ‘a powerhouse’ in cybersecurity

UTD is helping prepare computer science students, including Arturo Yundt-Pacheco and Reese Hoffart (right), with Dr. Kamil Sarac (left), for careers in cybersecurity. [Photo: UTD]

Ovidiu Daescu, professor and department head of computer science and a Jonsson School chair, said the CAE designations are the result of leadership by longtime faculty and a commitment to build UTD’s cybersecurity programs over 20 years.

“This has been an effort put together by cybersecurity faculty with the support of the department, school and university leadership to make sure that we establish ourselves as a powerhouse within the cybersecurity field of computer science,” Daescu said.

UTD established the Cyber Security Research Center (which later evolved into the Cyber Security Research and Education Institute) in 2004. It was founded by Bhavani Thuraisingham, professor of computer science and Founders Chair in Engineering and Computer Science.

UTD subsequently added programs such as a Master of Science in cyber security technology and policy in partnership with the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences.

UT Dallas also offers CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service, a National Science Foundation-managed program to support students earning cybersecurity-related master’s degrees. UTD also has hosted cybersecurity camps for K-12 students and workshops for industry.

Groundbreaking research

On the research front, UTD said faculty and students have expanded into new specialties including artificial intelligence and cybersecurity and cybersecurity in space.

A recent example of student research, UTD said, involved a group of undergraduates in Hamlen’s Language-based Security course that discovered a way to perform a bottom-up approach to verify that software is free of bugs or vulnerabilities, which it called a long-standing research problem.

The research was part of a project Hamlen is working on for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

“This discovery will make it possible for DARPA and others to secure software products, such as those used for military defense and critical infrastructure, that were previously beyond the reach of formal methods analysis,” Hamlen said. “This experience shows that, in our classes, students are developing highly practical skills; they’re actually extending state-of-the-art science of cybersecurity.”

UTD said its researchers recently discovered a security issue facing internet-connected devices that use a data protection tool called a trusted execution environment. UTD said the researchers presented their solution at the 38th annual International Federation for Information Processing Working Group 11.3 Conference on Data and Applications Security and Privacy in July 2024.

In October 2023, cybersecurity researchers introduced a security method, which they presented at the 26th International Symposium on Research in Attacks, Intrusions and Defenses, to protect computer programs from attacks that hijack control flow, the order in which instructions or statements are executed.

‘Save the world for real’

UTD said the scholarship program and CAE designations are part of a federal effort to produce a qualified cybersecurity workforce.

It said the cybersecurity industry faces a workforce shortage of 4.8 million, according to the International Information System Security Certification Consortium. UTD said the Bureau of Labor Statistics projected that the demand for information security analysts, who earn a median annual wage of $120,360, would grow 33% between 2023 and 2033.

UTD said its graduates with cybersecurity skills have gone to work for top companies and federal agencies.

“Like a lot of people who go into computer science, students in my classes often are fascinated with things like video games,” Hamlen said. “I tell them, how about if we save the world for real? That’s even more exciting.”

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