NASHVILLE (TSU News Service) –The need to protect and secure cyberspace for U.S. military and consumer use will continue to be a major challenge in the future. In response to this need, the College of Engineering at Tennessee State University is aggressively pursuing research opportunities to support and provide solutions to industry and government.
Cloud Computing Security research at Tennessee State University will get a significant boost thanks to a $616, 278 grant from Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The goal of the project is to enable development of novel security methods to ensure protection of vast amounts of information in cloud computing platforms. The research activities will include development of new approaches for intrusion detection, active response and recovery from attacks on the cloud.
The project will be a joint effort between TSU and Pennsylvania State University. The team, led by Dr. Mohan Malkani, associate dean of the College of Engineering, includes Dr. Sachin Shetty, assistant professor of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, and Dr. Peng Liu, professor of Information Sciences and Technology at PSU.
“The Air Force is extensively adopting the cloud computing infrastructure to improve information technology efficiency, reduce costs and provide a standard platform for delivering government services,” said Malkani. “The development of a secure cloud computing infrastructure is capable of supporting defense and intelligence networks.”
According to Shetty, cloud-computing services are gaining universal acceptance. “Computer users probably already utilize a ‘cloud’ in some form or another while browsing the web, checking e-mail, or backing up files,” he said. “Security of these cloud-based services is unproven and we are currently unaware of the level of protection of our data in the cloud.”
The grant will also fund a large cloud computing datacenter to conduct the research activities. The datacenter will contain 50 compute nodes, each with quad-core Intel Xeon X5550 processors running at 2.66 GHz, providing a total of a 200 cores. The datacenter will also serve as an experimental test bed for undergraduate and graduate students to enhance the quality of their senior design projects, theses and dissertations.
“This research thrust area is one of four areas that support the future TIGER (TSU Interdisciplinary Graduate Engineering Research) Institute, to open this semester in the Research & Sponsored Programs building,” said S. Keith Hargrove, Dean of the College of Engineering.
The mission of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research is to manage the discovery and initial development of the leading edge of research while identifying potential new concepts and opportunities that will serve the Air Force in the future. To accomplish this role, AFOSR focuses the basic research community (government, academia and industry), including numerous Nobel Laureates, on the vital task of supporting Air Force warfighter requirements. Basic research provides the essential foundation for technology development and systems acquisition.