The Center for Infrastructure Security in the Era of Artifical Intelligence held a planning meeting recently to discuss potential funding from the National Science Foundation to establish itself as an industry-university cooperative research center. The meeting drew together over 65 government, national laboratories and industry experts to address critical infrastructure security challenges.

Among the research projects underway regarding infrastructure security are:

• Supply chain security for open-sourced software
• Decentralizing critical systems telemetry
• Supply chain vulnerabilities in the internet-of-things networks
• Artificial intelligence-guided gunshot detection and source estimation for critical infrastructure

Attendees participated in panels, project presentations, poster sessions and discussions with key industry partners.

The ISEAI Center, a joint initiative between the U of A, George Mason University and the University of North Dakota, aims to address current and emerging infrastructure security issues by fostering collaborative research among interdisciplinary academic teams, government labs and industry partners. The center will focus on traditional and AI-enabled cyber threats, advancing AI technologies to enhance the resilience of national critical infrastructure.

In 2024, the NSF awarded a $20,000 grant to support the U of A's involvement in the planning phase of this IUCRC initiative. The grant aims to facilitate the U of A's role as a university site, aiding in the establishment of a network of industry collaborators and identifying critical challenges related to infrastructure security and resilience.

Leading the initiative are professors Chris Farnell and Kevin Jin of the U of A, alongside professor Massimiliano Albanese of George Mason University and professor Prakash Ranganathan of the University of North Dakota.

Members of the Center for Infrastructure Security in the Era of Artifical Intelligence meet for dinner during a planning meeting.