Tech’s Cybersecurity Center Gets New Director

Tennessee Tech has appointed Dr. Muhammad Ismail as the new director for its Cybersecurity Education, Research & Outreach Center.

Ismail said he is excited for the role but sees the responsibility that comes with preparing the next generation of cybersecurity professionals. Ismail said one of the biggest challenges is how dynamic the field is, as the tools they have to use and learn to protect themselves from are always changing.

“What we promise to do it to make sure that our curriculum is always up to date, teaching our students state-of-the-art, hands-on education, and enabling them with research and outreach in cybersecurity so that our programs here at Tennessee Tech would remain innovative, effective, and adaptive,” Ismail said.

Ismail said he plans to create education opportunities with the center that allow students outside of computer science to learn about cybersecurity as well. He said it is important to remember that center handles many different aspects of cybersecurity and wants to make sure they address as much as they can.

“We are not just (a) research center,” Ismail said. “We are also a center that is focused a lot on workforce development. So our promise is we will continue to do our best to develop the best-ever work that is needed for the industry. A workforce that is not only equipped with the basics and foundation of cybersecurity, but also have expert knowledge about advancements in cybersecurity and other technologies like, as I said, AI and quantum.”

Ismail currently works at Tech as an assistant computer science professor and has been with the school since 2019. Ismail said he already has experience with the previous center director, Dr. Ambareen Siraj, and the center itself as a faculty affiliate.

“CEROC has offered great help to me as a faculty member in post design, posting some of my research projects, and also in doing outreach activities in some of my cybersecurity projects,” Ismail said.

Ismail said he has experience in cybersecurity and operations of critical infrastructures, such as power grids that he will be able to bring to this new role.

“Another thing, as I said, is in AI, so I have done lots of research and use it as a tool in enabling and enforcing cybersecurity and also in using it as a tool to attack different critical infrastructure,” Ismail said. “And finally is a recent project that we have in quantum information science.”