UND awarded NSF Funding for Center for Infrastructure Security in the Era of AI (ISEAI)
The cooperative center will produce solutions to contribute to national security and economic stability
The University of North Dakota is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to support its participation in the planning phase of the proposed Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) for Infrastructure Security in the Era of AI (ISEAI).
The initiative is led by George Mason University (Mason) under the leadership of Professors Massimiliano Albanese and Amarda Shehu. Mason has a pending Phase I proposal which, if funded by NSF, will officially establish the Center with Mason as the lead site and financial support from over a dozen industry partners, including AWS, Peraton, and GDIT.
The total grant funding of $18,231 will assist UND’s College of Engineering & Mines in preparing to join the center as a partner university site through coordinated planning activities aimed at building a network of industry partners and identifying industry-relevant challenges in critical infrastructure security and resilience.
Prakash Ranganathan, associate professor of Electrical Engineering, Jielung Zhang, Sicong Shao and Diego Fregolent Mendes de Oliveira, all assistant professors in the School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, and UND Center for Cyber Security Research (C2SR), are the Principal Investigators of the NSF grant.
This award signifies an important step forward for UND, as the University will join George Mason University as a partner site of the ISEAI Center. The University of Arkansas will also be partnering in the project. The research center the universities will create aims to tackle critical cybersecurity challenges faced by essential sectors, including energy, UAS, aviation, financial services, transportation, and healthcare.
Ranganathan emphasized the significance of the planning phase of the NSF award.
“This grant will help UND strengthen its collaboration with industry leaders and government partners as we focus on safeguarding infrastructure systems from emerging AI-enabled cyber threats,” he said. “Through this initiative, we aim to develop innovative solutions that will contribute to both national security and economic stability.”
The center will leverage UND’s extensive expertise in cybersecurity, energy systems, and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to address infrastructure vulnerabilities. As part of the initiative, UND will engage in a customer discovery process, conducting interviews with industry partners to understand the real-world challenges they face in protecting critical infrastructure. These insights will help inform the development of practical applications to improve infrastructure security across North Dakota and the North Central region.
ISEAI is expected to hold its planning workshop in early spring 2025. During this phase, academic and industry partners will come together to shape the center’s strategic direction and explore future collaborative opportunities. This initiative also highlights UND’s role in workforce development, engaging students at all educational levels to contribute to the research and preparing them for careers in cybersecurity and infrastructure security.
This award underscores UND’s commitment to advancing research in AI and cybersecurity and aligns with the university’s broader mission to promote innovation, economic development and national resilience. It also may unlock future funding to increase research into cybersecurity and infrastructure security efforts.
The Industry-University Cooperative Research Center program is administered by the NSF, and aims to “generate breakthrough research by enabling close and sustained engagement between industry innovators, world-class academic teams and government agencies,” according to the IUCRC website.
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For more information about ISEAI and UND’s involvement, please contact Prakash Ranganathan at prakash.ranganathan@engr.und.edu.
