Related links : Air Force Research Laboratory Center for System Assurance College of Engineering and Computer Science at SU Computer Forensics R&D Center Economic Crime Institute

CNY:SAID Contact : Dr. Shiu-Kai Chin

Syracuse University's CASE Center-one of New York State's Centers for Advanced Technology-has been awarded $2.1 million for its Syracuse University Prototypical Research in Information Assurance (SUPRIA) program.

The mission of SUPRIA is to explore the cutting edge of technologies that protect the vast amounts of information that travel electronically, over the Internet, wireless channels, and other media. SUPRIA will engage the expertise of the Center for System Assurance (CSA), an existing research center within the College of Engineering and Computer Science, Utica College's Economic Crime Investigation Institute (ECII) and Computer Forensics Research and Development Center (CFRDC), New York companies engaged in information assurance, and the Information Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory in Rome, NY.

Funds for the SUPRIA program will be used to develop state-of-the-art laboratories at CSA and CFRDC, containing the latest technologies of computing and networking equipment. Joint teams consisting of CSA, ECII, and CFRDC faculty, industry experts, and corporate technologists will work together to solve the latest problems of information assurance, prototyping the solutions on site in CSA and CFRDC laboratories. There will be configurable "test bays" set up to prototype specific technologies.

There will be SUPRIA fellowships where a "SUPRIA Fellow" from industry, government, or another university could spend some time in the SUPRIA lab working on the latest solutions, and exchanging knowledge with our researchers. By building leading expertise in the field, companies will be drawn to send their resident experts to learn more from SUPRIA, or perhaps to test solutions in a SUPRIA lab test bay.

SUPRIA will have an advisory board composed of people from the information assurance field. Board members will be from private industry, state and local government agencies, other higher education centers, and research facilities. The SUPRIA Advisory Board will also act as a barometer of the pressing issues within the field, helping to validate and advise the research directions of SUPRIA.

There are a number of potential economic development benefits from this scenario of SUPRIA:

• Cutting-edge research will yield technologies with potential for technology transfer and commercialization, likely adding to New York's population of technology firms.
  
• The field of information assurance will only continue to grow, as the use of public and private networks grows rapidly. For example, according to market research firm Jupiter Communications, the projection for total e-commerce revenues will reach almost $2.2 trillion dollars by the year 2003.
  
• The SUPRIA objective of engaging researchers from SU, Utica College, industry, state and federal government, etc. will generate more critical mass than any one party alone, thus fueling the discovery of new technologies. SUPRIA, through CSA, has appropriate linkages with other groups, for example, CERIAS (Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security) at Purdue University.
  
• As SUPRIA becomes successful over the years in establishing a reputation for being expert in the field of information assurance, Central NY could become very attractive for related firms to locate or start up here. This creates a magnet to draw new firms that may not have otherwise considered establishing a Central New York location.

SUPRIA draws upon a natural fit with the Center for System Assurance (CSA), ECII, CFRDC and their faculty members. Faculty in CSA have won three million dollars in federal funding over the last two years. CSA includes a number of senior faculty from the College of ECS and the School of Information Studies. Six of those faculty members already have visible publications in the area of information assurance, and collaborative research is underway with the Defensive Information Warfare Branch of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in Rome, NY. CSA is also a National Security Agency (NSA) Center of Excellence in Information Assurance Education.

ECII and CFRDC have established education and research programs. The ECII has been in existence for over ten years. On its boards of advisors and directors are influential members of the financial community including MasterCard and Chase Manhattan Bank, and members of the law enforcement community including the FBI and Secret Service. The CFRDC was established two years ago and enjoys the support of the Air Force Research Lab and the National Institute of Justice.

Under the SUPRIA program, the addition of laboratory and computing infrastructure, SUPRIA Fellows, and joint product development with industry will allow us to further our expertise to the benefit of industry and government. More knowledge and discoveries in this vitalarea will lead to further advances, new start-up firms, and greater collaborations among area companies.