Cardiff University and Airbus have launched what they claim to be a “first-of-its-kind” cybersecurity center slated to undertake ground-breaking research and help to plug growing industry skills gaps.
Cardiff University’s School of Computer Science and Informatics will play host to the Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Analytics.
Researchers from the university and Airbus will jointly investigate new approaches to cybersecurity via technologies including machine learning, data analytics and artificial intelligence.
It is hoped the resulting research will help to improve security for private sector firms and critical infrastructure providers.
“Cyber security analytics is about improving our resilience to cyber-attacks through data modelling to detect and block malicious behavior before it causes its full impact, but also about understanding what motivates the behavior, what its likely impact will be, and how to communicate security alerts among decision and policy-makers”, explained senior lecturer, Pete Burnap.
The partnership with Airbus comes as a result of an MoU between the organizations which will see the two jointly develop academic programs.
The value of getting a private sector partner on board here is to produce course content relevant in the real world, thus arming graduates with the skills they need to walk straight into roles post-university.
Both researchers and students will have the opportunity to take secondments at the aerospace manufacturer, which has a 15,000-strong workforce in the UK and facilities at 32 locations nationwide, including a cybersecurity hub at Newport in Wales.
The launch is another feather in the cap for Cardiff University, which is building a growing reputation as a center of machine learning excellence.
The university has already received £2m in funding from a range of sources including government and the private sector to launch new programs over the coming three years.
They will apparently focus on developing machine learning algorithms designed to more accurately detect cyber-threats.
For Airbus, the deal is the latest in a long line of link-ups with academic institutions.
The firm’s site claims collaborative agreements with over 20 British universities.