The cybersecurity partnership could bring all kinds of benefits to Old Dominion University students, allowing them to tackle national defense research projects.
NORFOLK, Va. — Old Dominion University’s School of Cybersecurity has partnered with the United States Cyber Command to tackle national defense challenges.
13News Now spoke with the Director of the School of Cybersecurity, Daniel Takabi, to learn how this research will benefit future students. Takabi said that as technology advances, government agencies like the US Cyber Command are increasing their use of artificial intelligence (AI).
He said their team will work hand-in-hand with the agency to research how to fight the security challenges that will arise. Takabi said ODU is the first university in the nation to have its cyber AI programs validated by the National Security Agency.
“Very rapid progress in the capabilities of AI systems, and now they’re used in a lot of enterprises, and obviously government agencies,” Takabi said.
AI advancements, Takabi believes, could lead to future AI-powered attacks.
“Introduce a lot of new vulnerabilities and security issues,” he said.
Takabi’s team will spend the next several months working on their research on vulnerability and security, new categories, and on large language models that did not exist before AI. They will then regularly meet with their government contact.
“How we can minimize the security issues of these AI agents and autonomous systems that basically are taking over some of the tasks that we used to do,” said Takabi.
While only three Ph.D. students are participating in this research project, Takabi said their program has grown from only 11 students interested in cybersecurity opportunities in 2015 to nearly 1,700 this past fall.
“Have more students engage with these kinds of projects. Right now, it’s a small group of students, but we hope that we will expand our collaboration, potentially have students do internships with Cyber Command, or other government agencies,” said Takabi.
He believes their success could open the door to future research funding and internships for students, which could lead to full-time post-college jobs.
“The value in terms of the results that we have, and they have an interest in continuing the partnership in this project, and similar projects,” said Takabi.
Takabi said they will present their findings at the symposium hosted by the US Cyber Command in April, in front of other institutions participating in the program.
ODU officials said they’re hopeful their work with the US Cyber Command will expand far past April. This initial collaboration is an educational partnership agreement.
