The Department of Cyber Security Engineering (CYSE) was established to meet the urgent and growing demand for professionals capable of protecting complex systems at the intersection of the physical and digital worlds.

Building on George Mason’s leadership in engineering and information security, CYSE launched the first bachelor’s program of its kind in the United States, creating a model that integrates cybersecurity into system design from the very beginning. Since then, the department has expanded to include master’s and accelerated degree programs, a thriving capstone experience, and a dynamic research enterprise recognized nationally and internationally.

Our Mission
To educate and inspire the next generation of cybersecurity engineers through rigorous programs that combine technical knowledge, practical application, and innovative thinking, while contributing impactful research that strengthens the security and resilience of society’s critical systems.

CYSE is committed to advancing research that anticipates emerging threats, develops adaptive defenses, and secures cyber-physical systems across critical domains such as infrastructure, communications, and smart technologies. We prepare future leaders through rigorous programs that build advanced technical skills and problem-solving abilities, while supporting students with scholarships, mentorship, and experiential learning. Through partnerships with government, industry, and academia, we ensure our work guides practice, informs policy, and strengthens the resilience of global systems.

Source: Website

Paulo Costa has applied his significant experience as a fighter pilot to a career specializing in the field of electronic warfare and flight safety, which in conjunction with his research on probabilistic reasoning has led to applications in cyber and transportation security, heterogeneous data fusion, and decision support systems in healthcare, defense, and other areas. These topics are at the core of his classroom activities at both graduate and undergraduate levels, as well as his research path. Costa leads the research of graduate-level students in understanding security objectives and verification protocols, bringing in the science of probabilistic reasoning and challenging PhD-level candidates to consider theory and methods for building computationally efficient software agents that reason, act, and learn in environments characterized by noisy and chaotic traffic.

Costa is a key researcher in the field of probabilistic ontologies and has developed innovative applications and extensions that aid in the fight against cyber-warfare. In addition to his Mason assignments as Chair of the Cyber Security Engineering Department and Director of the C5I Center, Dr. Costa is Vice President for Securing Automation and Supply Chain Security (cymanii.org). He is a former President and current elected member of the Board of Directors of the International Society of Information Fusion (isif.org), as well as an IEEE Senior Member (SM13).

Degrees

• PhD, Information Technology, George Mason University
• MS, Systems Engineering, George Mason University
• BS, Engineering, Brazilian Air Force Academy

Source: CEC Page

Alexandre Barreto is an Associate Professor, Department of Cyber Security Engineering at George Mason University.

He has applied his significant experience as an air traffic and air defense infrastructure manager to a career specializing in the field of cybersecurity and networking, which in conjunction with his research on cyber impact assessment, has led to applications in cyber and transportation security, and decision support systems in defense and critical infrastructure areas. These topics are at the core of his classroom activities at both graduate and undergraduate levels, as well as his research path.

Barreto is a researcher in impact assessment and secure air transportation protocols and developed innovative applications and extensions that aid in the fight against cyber-warfare. He received his MS and PhD from Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica in Brazil.

Source: GMU CEC Page

Mohamed Gebril is an associate professor in the Cyber Security Engineering department. He joined Mason after working as a primary patent examiner for the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In his seven years at USPTO, he was involved in patent examination and prosecution areas in the data storage and networking fields, where he worked in intellectual property matters directed to computer security, enterprise network security and authentication, databases, data processing, and memory storage devices.

Gebril completed his PhD in electrical engineering at North Carolina A&T State University in 2011 in the area of big data indexing, machine learning, and AI applications. He received his MS in electrical engineering from North Carolina A&T State University in May 2008 in the area of robotics navigation and optimization and completed his undergraduate studies in electrical engineering at Alexandria University, Egypt.

Source: CEC webpage