Purdue, MITRE Form Research Partnership
(photo courtesy: Rebecca Wilcox/Purdue University)
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowPurdue University and nonprofit corporation MITRE in Virginia are combining their capabilities to form a public-private partnership. Purdue says the partnership will focus on areas of national safety and security.
The university says the strategic alliance allows both organizations to bring together their expertise, assets and resources to advance innovation and workforce development in a range of areas. Initial research areas include cyber, autonomous systems, microelectronics, avionics, data science, hypersonics, quantum computing, and food-energy-water systems.
“Through our work with MITRE, we recognized the vast potential to expand our successful collaborative research and education model in cybersecurity to many other areas of focus,” said Theresa Mayer, Purdue’s executive vice president for research and partnerships. “Our shared commitment to solve problems for a safer world makes MITRE an ideal strategic partner for Purdue, and we are thrilled to solidify this through our signing of the vision partnership agreement.”
The Purdue-MITRE vision partnership is built on extensive collaboration between MITRE and Purdue researchers in cyber security and cyber-physical security. Led by MITRE’s Matt Mickelson, principal strategist, and Purdue’s Dongyan Xu, director of the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security and Professor of Computer Science, Purdue says the efforts have resulted in joint work with the Office of Naval Research in cybersecurity and cyber-physical security.
“Purdue is the type of visionary partner we look for as we tackle transformative and impactful work to solve problems facing the nation,” said James Cook, MITRE’s vice president of strategic engagement and partnerships. “Together, MITRE and Purdue are developing game-changing cyber resilience techniques for cyber-physical systems. And we’re collaborating to enhance student development, while building a strong and diverse talent pipeline for MITRE and the nation.”
As part of the partnership, the university says MITRE has a new on-campus headquarters in Purdue’s Convergence Center for Innovation and Collaboration. Additionally, a cornerstone of the partnership is the establishment of a cyber institute to expose cyber practitioners to new capabilities.
Purdue says it is already a member of the COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition, a private sector-led response to the pandemic coordinated by MITRE and the Mayo Clinic. David Broecker, chief innovation and collaboration officer for Purdue Research Foundation, and members of the Regenstreif Center for Healthcare Engineering have worked in areas of testing, tracing and surveillance.
In data science, Purdue and Mark Daniel Ward, professor of statistics, associate director of actuarial science and director of The Data Mine, have worked with MITRE on its Generation AI Nexus curriculum as part of The Data Mine program. The goal is to enable students to build their competency in working with data.
In quantum science, MITRE is funding a joint research project with Purdue, led by Vlad Shalaev, the Bob and Anne Burnett Distinguished Professor of ECE.