Georgetown University said on Monday that it would launch a new Security and Software Engineering Research Center (S2ERC) later this month that will that will research cyber threats and other security and technology issues.
According to S2ERC’s Website, the mission of the new Research Center is to “conduct a program of applied and basic research on software security, system security and software technology problems of interest to its members.”
The overall goal, Georgetown says, is to enable security and software technology gains within member organizations.
Eric Burger, research professor of computer science, will serve as director of the new research center, and will be working with Catherine Lotrionte, director of Georgetown’s Institute for Law, Science and Global Security and visiting assistant professor of government and foreign service.
“We will attract high-energy, creative researchers to work with non-academic practitioners in a wide range of industries and government sites, who provide guidance, feedback and funding,” Berger said in a statement. “Our researchers gain access to real-world data and experienced practitioners who can guide them, while affiliate companies gain immediate access to innovative research.”
The first meeting, scheduled for May 28, will address the Cyber Threat Intelligence Exchange Ecosystem.
“We have been interviewing key stakeholders in the cyber threat intelligence sharing ecosystem to understand what is needed and feasible to obtain that would enable the efficient exchange of actionable reports,” the Center’s website explained.
Burger received a planning grant last year from the National Science Foundation to establish a the security research center on campus.
“This is exactly the kind of center that would benefit a Georgetown student interested in the cross-section of practical, applied policy and in-depth research,” Burger said.
In addition to studying cyber threats, the center will also focus on social, policy and corporate governance issues related to secure communications, as well as technologies to support network provenance, multilevel secure communications, network emulation and trust, the University said.
“I am pleased to have a new center that fills a need Georgetown can uniquely satisfy – bringing government, industry, and academia together in the heart of the nation’s capital,” says Spiros Dimolitsas, Georgetown’s senior vice president for research and chief technology officer. “The fact that we can attract participation from industry and government shows that our multiyear plan to build a significant research capability in the computer science department and a campus-wide cyber initiative is now bearing fruit.”
Security vendors including Symantec, Check Point Software Technologies, Edgewater Networks and IID will be working with S2ERC.
