University of Texas at Dallas Joins Forces With National Center for Transportation Cybersecurity Effort
The University of Texas at Dallas has joined a new national center in cybersecurity funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and created to develop strategies to protect the nation’s transportation system against cyberattacks.
UT Dallas is one of nine universities, led by Clemson University, selected to participate in the National Center for Transportation Cybersecurity and Resiliency (TraCR). It is one of 39 University Transportation Centers that conduct research to promote the safe, efficient and environmentally sound movement of goods and people. TraCR is set to receive $20 million from the DOT over five years.
Dr. Bhavani Thuraisingham
“We look forward to developing solutions to the challenging problems in transportation systems security. We are pleased that Clemson University invited us to join their team,” said Dr. Bhavani Thuraisingham, Founders Chair in Engineering and Computer Science in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science. As founder and senior strategist for UTD’s Cyber Security Research and Education Institute (CSI), she will serve as principal investigator at UTD and as one of the national center’s associate directors.
As vehicles, including autonomous vehicles and drones, increasingly become connected wirelessly, they face new cybersecurity threats. UTD will lead research on data privacy and cybersecurity risks and collaborate with other universities on projects including adversarial machine learning, machine learning for cybersecurity, secure data management and the applications of blockchain for transportation systems.
“This award is the result of many years of hard work by a group of dedicated faculty at the core of the CSI and asserts UT Dallas on the national map as a leader in research and development for ensuring the cybersafety of the transportation systems of tomorrow,” said Dr. Ovidiu Daescu, computer science department head and Jonsson School Chair.
Dr. Ovidiu Daescu
“I see TraCR as a first, yet critical, step in positioning UT Dallas among the universities at the forefront of a transportation systems revolution, powered by technologies that span across most engineering fields,” Daescu said. “I am particularly proud of the achievements of Professor Thuraisingham, who for years has been the soul and driving force behind CSI.”
Other members of the TraCR consortium are Benedict College in South Carolina, Florida International University, Morgan State University in Maryland, Purdue University, South Carolina State University, The University of Alabama and the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Co-principal investigators from UTD are Dr. Alain Bensoussan, the Lars Magnus Ericsson Distinguished Chair, professor of operations management, and director of the International Center for Decision and Risk Analysis in the Naveen Jindal School of Management; Dr. Murat Kantarcioglu, Ashbel Smith Professor of computer science and a data privacy expert; and Dr. Latifur Khan, professor of computer science and an expert in integrating cybersecurity and machine learning.
“This award is the result of many years of hard work by a group of dedicated faculty at the core of the CSI and asserts UT Dallas on the national map as a leader in research and development for ensuring the cybersafety of the transportation systems of tomorrow.”
Dr. Ovidiu Daescu, computer science department head and Jonsson School Chair
The UTD team also includes Dr. Kevin Hamlen, the Louis Beecherl Jr. Distinguished Professor of computer science and CSI executive director, and Dr. Tyler Summers, associate professor of mechanical engineering and an expert in cyber-physical systems.
As part of the DOT funding agreement, support for this effort is also provided by UT Dallas, the Jonsson School and the computer science department.