UA Little Rock receives $5 million to advance cybersecurity education

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UA Little Rock) has received $5 million in federal funding aimed at enhancing cybersecurity in the energy sector through education, workforce development, and innovation.

The funding is provided by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response.

“Developing a workforce of skilled professionals to combat cybercrime is increasingly important,” U.S. Sen. Boozman said. “I’m proud to support this initiative to strengthen our state’s role in preventing cybersecurity attacks and create additional opportunities for Arkansans to safeguard critical energy networks.”

UA Little Rock is leading a cohort of partners that include the Consortium for Cyber Innovation, Forge Institute, the University of Arkansas, and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB).

The objectives include improving education, training, and workforce development for securing industrial control systems (ICS) against cybersecurity attacks, improving cybersecurity threat analysis and intelligence sharing, and creating an innovation startup program for cybersecurity in the energy sector.

“The energy sector, and electric utilities in particular, are on the front lines when it comes to nation-state cybersecurity attacks,” said Dr. Philip Huff, assistant professor of cybersecurity at UA Little Rock and principal investigator. “This groundbreaking initiative underscores UA Little Rock and our partners’ commitment to stay at the forefront of cybersecurity education and research, empowering students and researchers to address the complex challenges of the digital age. We are especially grateful to Sen. Boozman and the Department of Energy for helping Arkansas become better prepared for the growing threat of cybersecurity attacks in the energy sector.”

The Consortium for Cyber Innovation will be creating a competency-based certificate program in cyber-informed engineering tailored for the energy sector. These certificates will equip students with specialized skills tailored to meet the evolving demands of the cybersecurity landscape and will strengthen the cybersecurity expertise of operators, technicians, and engineers within the energy sector. The certificate program will integrate into existing computer science and cybersecurity programs at universities and community colleges within the Consortium for Cyber Innovation.

While developing the certificate program, the researchers will conduct a regional workforce needs assessment on the energy sector within Arkansas and its neighboring regions. This will include hosting a series of workshops, webinars, and site visits to get the feedback needed to understand the workforce skill needs for cyber-informed engineering. The needs assessment will ensure that students have knowledge and skills to address real-world challenges and are prepared for high-demand jobs.

Additionally, the funding will support the establishment of an innovation startup program in the Emerging Threat Information Sharing and Analysis Center dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship in energy cybersecurity, progressing ideas from concept to commercialized solutions.

The innovation program will include a mentorship program, a 12-to-14-week pre-accelerator program to help formalize new entrepreneurial ventures, and a series of innovation programs for students, faculty, community, and industry members. Researchers will work with students so they can receive academic credit for participating in the pre-accelerator program.

Additionally, the award will fund research initiatives leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), deep reinforcement learning techniques to identify optimal protection strategies against cyber threats. This research will be used to enhance the Emerging Threat Information Sharing and Analysis Center’s automated threat analysis process by refining its attack simulation environment.