UD To Open Center for Cybersecurity & Data Intelligence

March 31, 2019 Sean Newhouse

This article was originally posted on Feb. 11.

The new Center for Cybersecurity & Data Intelligence at the University of Dayton will be completed in summer 2019, before classes start for the fall.

The Center began construction on Nov. 12 and will be located on the third floor of Miriam Hall. It will provide a number of services for students and faculty from many different academic departments, and it will hold the Dayton Regional Cyber Range.

“When it’s fully functional, the Range will provide an environment in which students may try out skills (e.g. hacking or network penetration) in a controlled environment that will enable monitoring what they do to assess performance on things such as time to task, number of tasks completed, etc.,” said Dr. Dave Salisbury, the Center’s director.

The Center was established with a lead gift from Premier Health, and the Range is part of a regional collaboration with Sinclair, Clark State and Edison community colleges and Central State University. Partners benefit from opportunities to interact with UD students, and graduates benefit from potential internships and employee recruitment.

“We really appreciate the vision that (Premier Health) has shown by its active participation in this initiative,” Salisbury said.

In addition to the Range, the Center will provide teaching laboratory space and act as a focus point for cyber and data intelligence initiatives across campus, such as the School of Business Administration’s new Master’s program in business analytics and the autonomous systems program in the computer science department.

“Some of these programs predate the Center, but the plan is for the Center to serve as a clearing house that can help focus these initiatives,” Salisbury said. “One has to recall that cybersecurity is by its nature a multidisciplinary field.”

The Center can assist researchers in fields including computer science, computer engineering and management information system (MIS). Cybersecurity is becoming important in the accounting and criminal justice fields, as well.

Rusty Baldwin, distinguished research professor in the department of computer science, was named the first director of research for the Center. Baldwin has published more than 100 journal and conference papers, is listed on three patents and seven U.S. Air Force inventions and served as a research adviser for more than 70 graduate students.

“Dr. Baldwin has a tremendous background in sponsored research in the cybersecurity field,” Salisbury said.

The Center for Cybersecurity & Data Intelligence will enable students interested in the field to gain experience and act as a space for collaboration with the wider Dayton community.

Graphic created by Liv Pettigrew.