Summary
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
OnAir Post: Paulo Costa
About
Web Links
Department Chair’s Letter
Dear students, parents, and partners,
Welcome to the Department of Cyber Security Engineering––the first of its kind in the country and the top-ranked program in Virginia.
We are leaders in education in this field, offering both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in cyber security engineering.
Our programs prepare students to tackle some of the most daunting security issues of our day. We teach engineers how to design large, secure systems from the ground up.
Demand for our graduates has never been higher. One group suggests that the global cybersecurity workforce shortage will reach upwards of 1.8 million unfilled positions by 2022. Other reports put that number above 3 million.
Our faculty members are world-renowned leaders in education and research, and our students have the opportunity to work with them in some of the best labs in the country.
Our focus is not only on giving students the technical knowledge they need but helping them become leaders in their fields.
We strive to provide our students with a foundation that will serve them for a career of life-long learning while also advancing the frontiers of engineering.
Explore our programs on this website and see for yourself.
Sincerely,
Paulo Costa
Chair, Department of Cyber Security Engineering
Research
Research Interests
- Probabilistic Ontologies
- Decision Support Systems
- Cybersecurity
- Information Fusion
- Cyber-Physical Systems Security
Recent Grants
- Cybersecurity Energy and Emissions Quantification Framework, sub-award from DOE’s Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CyManII), 2020-2025.
- Recombinant AI Engineering Seedlings, sub-award from Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security, ODNI.
- Design Space Characterization and Analytical Techniques for Adaptive Kill-Web Analysis, sub-award from Linquest, Inc., DARPA Safe-Sim program.
- DALNIN: Dependency-based Assessment of Litigious Network Events Impacting the Mission, sub-award from VTech, Korean Agency for Defense Development.
Patents & Publications
Patents
ADS-Bsec – A Holistic Framework to Secure ADS-B. US Patent No. US11,022,696 B1, Jun 2021
Publications
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