Enhancing Cybersecurity Research and Experimentation Infrastructure with Graphics Processing Units
Abstract
The main objective of the proposal is to acquire the essential equipment for enhancing the existing cybersecurity research and experimentation infrastructure at the Department of Defense (DoD) sponsored Center of Excellence in Cyber Security (COEcyber) at Norfolk State University (NSU) with state-of-the-art Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) accelerator equipped computing platform for deep learning, big data analytics, and graphics. The new equipment will be used primarily to support the cybersecurity research, education, outreach and workforce development programs at the COEcyber and NSU, especially in the areas of machine learning, cryptography, blockchain, and modeling, simulation and visualization. It will also be used secondarily to support other STEM research and research-related programs in fields such as data sciences, astronomy, health informatics, and materials engineering. The COEcyber was launched in April 2015 for a five-year period of performance until April 2020. The proposed expansion in infrastructural capabilities and capacities is critically needed to support two strategic research initiatives at the COEcyber going forward: (1) Advancing computationally intensive methods for cyber including machine learning, big data analytics, blockchain and cryptography. (2) Expanding collaboration with strategic partners including (a) The DoD-sponsored COEs in Autonomy and Research Data Analysis, especially in machine learning, collaborative decision making, intelligent/cognitive systems, and large-scale real-time data analytics. (b) The DoD research community including Air Force Research Lab and Navy Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. (c) Academic institutions and national labs including Sandia National Labs (SNL), Clark Atlanta University (CAU), and Mississippi Valley State University. The proposed major equipment to be acquired includes GPU accelerators, enterprise-grade servers, storage, and networking devices to build a new cluster optimized for high-performance computing with dedicated GPU accelerated server, storage and networking resources. This new cluster will be installed in the existing datacenter and integrated with the existing computing, storage, networking, and management infrastructure consisted of OpenStack based cloud computing and Hadoop based big data platforms to provide a robust, versatile, and feature-rich cyber analysis, simulation and experimentation environment at the COEcyber. Open-source and free software and resources will be the primary source for operating systems, middleware, applications software and tools for these systems. The requested equipment will be used collaboratively with another major cybersecurity initiative, Consortium for K-20 Cybersecurity Workforce Pipeline, which is sponsored by the Department of Energy and includes NSU (lead), SNL and CAU as three of its fifteen members. The expanded infrastructure will be used to provide an advanced research environment especially for cybersecurity and data sciences. It will be used to support a growing number and variety of outreach and workforce development initiatives at the COEcyber and NSU including cybersecurity related summer internship programs, workshops and summer camps. The enhanced infrastructure will bring significant benefits to the COE in Cyber Security, NSU, HBCU/MI community, and the nation through the extensive and constantly expanding programs and partnerships in cybersecurity research, education, outreach, and workforce development.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Sep 04, 2019
- Source ID
- W911NF1910479
Entities
People
- Chung-chu Hsieh
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Norfolk State University
- Office of the Secretary of Defense