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The Security Frontier

Innovating for Secure and Resilient Communities >>>

Ensuring communities are prepared to face global threats, from climate change to cybersecurity to national defense through advances in preparation, defense, mitigation, and recovery.

Partnering for workforce development and initiatives

Virginia Tech is the first academic institute to partner with the Institute for Defense Analyses, a private, non-profit that supports government sponsors on critical national security and science policy issues.

Virginia Tech President Tim Sands (at left) signs the memorandum of understanding with Institute for Defense Analyses President Norton A. Schwartz. Photo by Anthony Wright for Virginia Tech.

Learning to grow against the odds

With a National Science Foundation grant, Virginia Tech researchers tackle the climate change-induced challenges to vegetable production

The research team is developing climate-smart, economically efficient, and environmentally sustainable precision agricultural practices that enable more effective and adaptive decision-making as part of our nation’s agricultural priorities. Photo courtesy of USDA.

A National Priority

As global threats become more complex and frequent, so does our reliance on science and technology to keep them at bay. Federal research agencies like the Department of Defense ensure scientists and engineers have the resources they need to support the U.S. military. The fiscal 2022 defense appropriations bill includes increases in overall funding for research, development, testing, and evaluation.

Image of the United States Capitol Building.  Photo credit - https://appropriations.house.gov.

Solving 5G problems in the now

Tom Hou, a Commonwealth Cyber Initiative researcher, and his team have developed a methodology that allows 5G network problems to be solved on site and in real time.

Large wildfires create pyrocumulus clouds that carry aerosols into the atmosphere, where they influence climate change by upsetting the balance of radiation reaching the Earth's surface. Better data about how aerosols behave in the atmosphere can facilitate more accurate climate prediction. Creative Commons image / CC BY 3.0.

Using food waste to reduce plastic waste

Supported by a $2.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Zhiwu "Drew" Wang is leading a first-of-its kind pilot project to develop and demonstrate an affordable system to produce biodegradable bioplastics from food waste.

Zhiwu "Drew" Wang (at left) and Ph.D. student Xueyao "Kira" Zhang in Wang's lab in the Human and Agricultural Biosciences Building I, where the applied research on bioplastics is conducted. Photo by Max Esterhuizen for Virginia Tech.

Security Research Areas

  • Climate Change
  • Cloud Security
  • Computer Networks
  • Cryptography
  • Cybersecurity
  • Data Control
  • Defense
  • Disaster Resilience
  • Economic Security
  • Energy
  • Environmental Security
  • Infrastructure
  • Mitigation
  • Mobile
  • Network
  • Privacy
  • Recovery
  • Software
  • Software Coding
  • Water
  • Web Services
  • Wireless

Security Research Experts

From disaster resiliance to computer network security, Virginia Tech researchers are working to meet needs of the nation’s intelligence and defense communities and addressing global environmental changes.

Laura Freeman portrait.

Laura Freeman

 

Luiz da Silva portrait.

Luiz de Silva

Eric Patterson portrait.

Eric Paterson

Daphne Yao portrait.

Daphne Yao

Virginia Tech Security Research Sponsors

Security News

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