CMU: An impressive resource
I recently finished a visit to one of our nation’s greatest intellectual resources, the school of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. The incredible work being accomplished at the university includes the globally famous Software Engineering Institute and the equally renowned CERT/CC. CMU also serves the nation by hosting and supporting Cylab. More on each of these is below.
SEI is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC). SEI processes and practices, which are almost certainly familiar to readers of this blog, are now being taught at universities everywhere. Their comprehensive approach to quality is being used today by development organizations around the world and is producing fantastic results. There are many reasons for this, but the short version is that SEI processes like the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), the Team Software Process (TSP) and the Software Engineering Measurement and Analysis (SEMA) have proven to enhance the quality and performance of software activities while reducing cost and development time. Read more at: http://www.sei.cmu.edu.
The CERT/CC is a group I first stared working with in December 1998 when I was one of the startup grew of the JTF-CND. I’ve been a big fan of them sever since, and have tried to track what was going on there, but frankly I lost touch and am really glad I got the in person update. The CERT/CC is a critical enabler of hte IT industry’s ability to detect and remediate vulnerabilities, conduct computer forensics, visualize cyber information, and respond to incidents of every scale. For more on the CERT read more at: http://cert.org.
The Cylab is the nation’s largest university based research and education program focused on cyber security, dependability and privacy. Cylab conducts sponsored research as one of the NSF CyberTrust centers. According to the CyLab website:
The CyLab Strategy is to integrate response, prediction, research and development, and education both nationally and internationally and build capacity in:
- Technology – by pursuing an aggressive, highly interdisciplinary research and development agenda that integrates technology, policy, and management
- Human Resources – by educating professionals in Information Technologies, Business, and Policy, and by creating “cyber-aware” citizens worldwide
- Industry – by transitioning technologies to large, medium, and small companies and by creating start-ups
For more on the Cylab read more at: http://www.cylab.cmu.edu/.
Thanks to all at CMU for doing what you do, it is really appreciated by computer scientists, CTOs and leaders everywhere. Please keep it up.
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Actually, Cylab is not the biggest. CERIAS is almost 3 times bigger than Cylab. We also graduate more PhD students, have been in operation longer, and many people (and independent rankings) tend to rank CERIAS as more productive than Cylab.
That isn’t to take away from the many great accomplishments of the people at Cylab. But CMU gets lots of good press (as do the fine folks at Berkeley) from people who don’t really seem to look much farther than a half-dozen universities to rank the “best” in anything related to CS. That’s a little annoying to the rest of the community, many of whom are doing wonderful things that are too often overlooked because they aren’t at one of those universities.
And btw, CERIAS is doing all that WITHOUT the dedicated resources of an SEI funded by the US government. It sure would be nice if all those CTOs and government leaders you mention would provide some resources to the rest of us….
Spaf,
Those are really good points and they are most appreciated. Thanks. I read about CERIAS from time to time, but I have to admit, since completing my MS in CS in 2002 I have not tracked you guys as close as I should have. For a while when I was at TRW I interacted with associates who clearly saw the value in working with CERIAS, for several reasons, perhaps the most important being the quality of the brainpower there. I wonder if your current Northrop sponsors are my same friends (TRW was acquired Northrop in 2002).
After hitting your website again for an update I realized I should have been tracking you much closer. Something I should have e-mailed all my friends, for example, is the news release at: http://www.cerias.purdue.edu/site/news/view/cerias_ranked_top_information_security_program/
titled “CERIAS Ranked Top Information Security Program”.
Anyway, I have to tell you I was really impressed at CMU, and I still really believe they are a national treasure. But I guess I should expand my thoughts to say they are one of many incredible resources we should track, and CERIAS, being 3 times larger, is also fueling my optimism for the future.
I guess the more important point, however, is which of you will generate the ideas/concepts/thoughts/leaders that will end the threat and power of botnets and significantly enhance the privacy and security of the nation’s (and our personal) computer infrastructures.
Cheers and v/r,
Bob