The dynamic threat landscape against our nation’s critical infrastructure increasingly requires the ability to apply novel machine-speed and multidisciplinary methods for cyber threat prevention, detection, and response. However, the capacity to achieve the necessary autonomy is critically limited by a lack of robust training data and test environments (physical and virtual) representative of actual operational systems, inability to understand and predict the downstream consequences of defender and attacker actions, and insufficient technical talent and transition pathways to validate and deploy new capabilities rapidly.
The GT-PNNL Institute for Cybersecurity and Resilient Infrastructure Studies (ICARIS) was formed in 2022 to deliver the technologies, test-beds, and talent necessary to secure the nation’s critical infrastructure. This collaboration brings together the capabilities of PNNL and Georgia Tech to accelerate our combined contributions to the security of the critical infrastructure community.
ICARIS leverages the unique capabilities of the faculty, students, and staff of PNNL, the Schools and Colleges of Georgia Tech, and the Georgia Tech Research Institute.
The primary goals of the Institute are three-fold:
- perform translational R&D that moves innovative concepts towards implementation into operational environments;
- develop the future workforce; and
- provide advice and solutions to communities, states, federal agencies, and businesses.
About PNNL
PNNL advances the frontiers of knowledge, taking on some of the world’s greatest science and technology challenges. Distinctive strengths in chemistry, Earth sciences, biology, and data science are central to our scientific discovery mission. Our research lays a foundation for innovations that advance sustainable energy through decarbonization and energy storage and enhance national security through nuclear materials and threat analyses.
For more than two decades, PNNL has advanced resilient cyber capabilities, including our work in cybersecurity, by advancing methodologies, algorithms, data analytics and tools to equip cyber defenders; enabling stronger, more resilient technologies and systems; and understanding, predicting, and defending complex adaptive systems.
PNNL also the site selected by the Department of Energy Office of electricity for the Grid Storage Launchpad, which will accelerate development of next-generation energy storage technology as a national priority for modernizing the power grid and unlocking a broad array of economic and societal benefits.
About Georgia Tech
The Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the nation’s top public research universities with nearly 40,000 students who study in person at the main campus in Atlanta, at Georgia Tech-Lorraine in France, at Georgia Tech-Shenzhen in China, as well as through distance and online learning. Tech’s engineering and computing Colleges are the largest and among the highest-ranked in the nation. The Institute also offers outstanding programs in business, design, liberal arts, and sciences. With more than $1 billion annually in research awards across all six Colleges and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), Georgia Tech is among the nation’s most research-intensive universities.
About Georgia Tech Research Institute
The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research organization of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,900 employees supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country. In FY2022 GTRI had over $833M of problem-solving research awards for government and industry.