What is Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (Advanced CI)?

Advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) is a term that encompasses advanced computers, methods, and algorithms which are crucial for advancing scientific research in ways that are otherwise impossible. Advanced CI includes high-performance computers, big data, artificial intelligence, parallel computing techniques.

The term advanced CI is frequently used by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Federal government in relation to its importance to cutting-edge research. For example, the NSF CyberTraining program solicitation contains the following definition:

For the purpose of this [CyberTraining] solicitation, advanced CI is broadly defined as the set of resources, tools, methods, and services for advanced computation, large-scale data handling and analytics, and networking and security for large-scale systems that collectively enable potentially transformative fundamental S&E [science & engineering] research and education.

What does T3-CIDERS have to do with Advanced CI and cybersecurity?

Advanced CI platforms and techniques (such as high-performance computers, big data, artificial intelligence and many more) have become indispensable in conducting cutting-edge research in cybersecurity. Presently, a significant gap still exists between students’ preparedness and the required CI skills to conduct research in many cybersecurity areas. The T3-CIDERS program aims to fill this gap by empowering faculty and research community members to effectively harness computational and data competencies for themselves while simultaneously growing the skills of students and other aspiring cybersecurity researchers.

Is T3-CIDERS a cybersecurity training?

T3-CIDERS is definitely related to cybersecurity (in particular research in this area), but T3-CIDERS is not a cybersecurity training in the traditional sense, which covers topics such as OS and network security, security policies and standards, cyber defense, cyber threat analysis and mitigation, ethical hacking, red/blue team, computer forensics, etc. Rather, T3-CIDERS is a train-the-trainer to equip cyber faculty, researchers, and students with CI (specifically, computational/data science) skills that are important to push state-of-the-art cybersecurity research in areas such as AI security, internet-of-things, advanced cybersecurity threat detection & defense. T3-CIDERS takes cybersecurity research problems as its background, therefore it touches basic cybersecurity matters and common cybersecurity problems. Further, T3-CIDERS is designed to enable its participants to teach these CI skills to others, in order to prepare them to participate in the same advanced research.

Why should I care about T3-CIDERS, and what are my incentives to join?

T3-CIDERS will introduce effective training and instructional design methods to prepare you to train others in advanced CI domains such as high-performance computing, big data, machine learning, cryptography, and parallel programming. You will gain access to hands-on training modules in advanced CI relevant to cybersecurity and cyber-related research and be exposed to an evidence-based training and design methodology. Plus, you’ll receive support in preparing and carrying out your own training activities within your local academic communities, both from the T3-CIDERS project team and from the CI-enabled community of practice you will join. Monetary assistance will also be made available for participants to attend the Summer Institute in person.

If I join T3-CIDERS, what is expected of me?

Since T3-CIDERS is a train-the-trainer program, participants are expected to plan and execute a minimum of one local training activity. Please consult the “Local Training” section of the Intended Outcomes of the training to learn more.

What is DeapSECURE?

DeapSECURE, which stands for Data-Enabled Advanced Computational Training Platform for Cybersecurity Research and Education, is a training program developed to infuse high-performance computational techniques into cybersecurity research and education. As an NSF-funded project of the ODU School of Cybersecurity, the DeapSECURE program includes six non-degree training modules designed to expose cybersecurity students to advanced CI platforms and techniques rooted in big data, machine learning, neural networks, and high-performance programming. The techniques taught in the DeapSECURE workshops are rather general and transferable to other disciplines, e.g., science, engineering, finance, and linguistics. For more information about DeapSECURE, please visit https://deapsecure.gitlab.io/ .

What is the relationship between DeapSECURE and T3-CIDERS?

The T3-CIDERS training builds upon the six CI modules produced by the NSF-funded “DeapSECURE” program, a hands-on introduction to crucial CI technologies directed at cybersecurity research applications. We anticipate that a large fraction of the target audience of our Future Trainers will be people who are very new to CI, therefore we leverage the novice-friendly DeapSECURE lesson modules as the resources to equip Future Trainers with ability to onboard others to CI platforms and techniques.