The Security Frontier

Innovating for Secure and Resilient Communities >>>

Ensuring communities are prepared to face global threats, from climate change to cybersecurity to national defense through advances in preparation, defense, mitigation, and recovery.

Virginia Tech National Security Institute

Based on the foundation of the Ted and Karyn Hume Center for National Security and Technology, the university launched the Virginia Tech National Security Institute in September 2021. With a presence in Blacksburg, Virginia and the Washington, D.C., metro area, the institute aspires to be the nation's preeminent academic organization at the nexus of interdisciplinary research, technology, policy, and talent development, the national security institute will advance national security in pursuit of a secure America.

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A National Priority

As global threats become more complex and frequent, so does our reliance on science and technology to keep them at bay. Federal research agencies like the Department of Defense ensure scientists and engineers have the resources they need to support the U.S. military. The fiscal 2022 defense appropriations bill includes increases in overall funding for research, development, testing, and evaluation.

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Image of the United States Capitol Building. Photo credit - https://appropriations.house.gov.

Predicting Climate Change

Reining in climate change has become a central pillar of the Biden administration’s approach to economic and public policy; clean energy initiatives, emissions caps, and other climate-focused provisions account for billions in spending in bills currently working their way through Congress. Virginia Tech researchers, with a heavy-hitting team of collaborators at research institutions all over the country, have mapped out a plan that could finally shed some light on this mysterious region of the atmosphere.

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Large wildfires create pyrocumulus clouds that carry aerosols into the atmosphere, where they influence climate change by upsetting the balance of radiation reaching the Earth's surface. Better data about how aerosols behave in the atmosphere can facilitate more accurate climate prediction. Creative Commons image / CC BY 3.0.

Leading the Department of Defense’s Acquisition Innovation and Research Center

Funded by the Department of Defense and directed by the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, the center will bring together higher education expertise to increase efficiency in the U.S. Defense Acquisition System to accompany the expansion of defense technology.

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Laura Freeman, the Hume Center’s Intelligent Systems Lab director, works with faculty from the Stevens Institute of Technology and Georgetown University to help lead the Department of Defense’s new Acquisition Innovation and Research Center. Photo taken pre-COVID by Bill Petros, Virginia Tech.

Security Research Areas

Climate Change
Cloud Security
Computer Networks
Cryptography
Cybersecurity
Data Control
Defense
Disaster Resilience
Economic Security
Energy
Environmental Security

Infrastructure
Mitigation
Mobile
Network
Privacy
Recovery
Software
Software Coding
Water
Web Services
Wireless

Security Research Experts

From disaster resiliance to computer network security, Virginia Tech researchers are working to meet needs of the nation’s intelligence and defense communities and addressing global environmental changes.

Laura Freeman

Luiz de Silva

Eric Paterson

Daphne Yao

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Virginia Tech Security Research Sponsors

Security Research Teams

Aerospace and Ocean Systems Division

Center for Coastal Studies

Commonwealth Cyber Initiative

Global Change Center

Intelligent Systems Division

Space @ Virginia Tech

Spectrum Dominance Division

Security News

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Building the tools to make environmental data more accessible and forecasts more accurate , article
Quinn Thomas will be leading Virginia Tech’s efforts as part of a $3.2 million National Science Foundation project that will develop the DeCODER platform to assist researchers in predicting environmental change.
Date: Nov 18, 2022
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Students bring spark, power, and drive to cybersecurity research , article
Meet a few of the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative student researchers in Southwest Virginia who are reframing the big questions and finding the answers – all while training to be future cybersecurity leaders.
Date: Nov 18, 2022
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6G vision: The future of wireless communications can be seen through your phone’s camera lens , article
Professors Walid Saad and Harpreet Dhillon of Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering have been awarded a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to develop technologies that use current and emerging wireless systems to “view” and map the surrounding environment.
Date: Nov 14, 2022
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Flexing cyber superpowers in Southwest Virginia , article
Diverse and sometimes unlikely collaborations equip Commonwealth Cyber Initiative research teams to address today’s widely varied cybersecurity challenges.
Date: Nov 14, 2022

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