The Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) is Virginia’s main access point for cybersecurity research, innovation, workforce development, and news. In this community, researchers find funding and collaboration, students discover diverse career possibilities, and new innovations come to life.

CCI: Advancing People and Technology for a Secure Tomorrow

Virginia is the ideal locale for CCI due to its strong base of research excellence and its diverse higher education system. These factors combined with the state’s ecosystem of venture capital investment and high-growth firms, along with its density of cybersecurity talent, bring a confluence of contributors to the future success of CCI.

Vision
To establish Virginia as a global center of excellence in cybersecurity research and serve as a catalyst for the commonwealth’s economic diversification and long-term leadership in this sector.

Mission
To serve as an engine for research, workforce development, and innovation at the intersection between cybersecurity, autonomous systems, and intelligence.

Source: CEC Webpage

Google and GMU Collaborate to Train the Next Generation of Cyber Defenders in AI

The global shortage of cybersecurity talent is growing, with a projected shortfall of 3.4 million people by the end of 2023¹ . This demand is driven by the increasing sophistication of cyberthreats, the growing use of cloud computing, and the need for continuous training and education in the cybersecurity field.

To address this growing shortage, Google and George Mason University (Mason) are working together to provide students with access to Google Career Certificates and Google Cloud’s cutting-edge cybersecurity training.

Source: Google Cloud

AI systems expert with a proven track record of building enterprise-grade intelligent solutions that drive business outcomes. Trusted by organizations like DARPA and Samsung to solve complex problems and deliver real-world impact.

Passionate about next-gen AI—especially systems that demand multi-modal reasoning, precise inference, and knowledge-based thinking.

Liza Wilson Durant serves as the associate provost for strategic initiatives and community engagement at George Mason University and professor and associate dean for strategic initiatives and community engagement in the College of Engineering and Computing.

She works to build meaningful partnerships across the university with external corporate, government, academic, non-profit, and global entities to support the mission of Mason’s strategic objectives.

Prior to her appointment as associate provost, she served as chair of the Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering, where she has been a faculty member since 2010.

She received her BS and MS degrees from Cornell University and Stanford University respectively, and her Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the Johns Hopkins University.

Source: CCI