Cisco announces strategic partnership with Carnegie Mellon CyLab

As cyberattacks continue to plague our world’s critical infrastructure, researchers at Cisco are constantly looking for ways to up their game. 

“Cisco’s products are foundational technologies that power today’s digital infrastructure,” says Dr. Ramana Kompella, Distinguished Engineer and the Head of Research in the Emerging Tech and Incubation group at Cisco. “Cybersecurity is not just nice to have, it’s critical to have, as our societal dependence on digital infrastructure only continues to increase.”

The mission of Cisco Research, the research arm of multinational tech leader Cisco Systems, is to foster research collaborations with “the best university researchers in the field.” Thus, the company has announced a new partnership with Carnegie Mellon University CyLab.

Cybersecurity is not just nice to have, it’s critical to have....

Dr. Ramana Kompella, Distinguished Engineer and the Head of Research in the Emerging Tech and Incubation group, Cisco

“As we started to build our cybersecurity research collaborations, we explored a partnership with CMU CyLab, which is one of the most prestigious cybersecurity institutes in the country,” says Kompella. “After a few conversations with the lab directors and faculty, we decided to join the consortium as we found amazingly talented research teams conducting research in areas of strategic interest to Cisco.”

Kompella says that their goal in the new partnership is to fund research teams in solving some of the most important technological challenges in cybersecurity with a view to achieve technology, business, and societal impact.

“We want to be plugged into some of the cutting-edge research activities around cybersecurity at CMU to inform new, innovative, and transformative solutions for our customers,” says Kompella.

Cisco will be a founding sponsor of the Future Enterprise Security Initiative (FutureEnterprise@CyLab). The new research initiative, co-directed by CyLab faculty Lujo Bauer and Vyas Sekar, will focus on creating the knowledge and capabilities to build and implement secure enterprise systems.

“We are looking not just for sponsors but for partners, and Cisco fits that role ideally,” says Bauer. “I'm excited to see how our collaboration will shape the research that we will do as part of the Future Enterprise Security Initiative.”

We are looking not just for sponsors but for partners, and Cisco fits that role ideally.

Lujo Bauer, co-director, Future Enterprise Security Initiative

The initiative aims to bring together innovative CMU cybersecurity, privacy, artificial intelligence, computer science, engineering, and human-factors research with world-leading industry expertise and engagement.

“We are tackling a grand challenge problem,” says Sekar. “This is ecosystem-scale research.”

“Enterprises are some of our main customers and we have decided to sponsor this initiative as we look into innovative technologies that can protect our customers and small, medium and large enterprises from emerging digital threats,” says Kompella.

To learn more about partnering with CMU CyLab and the Future Enterprise Security initiative, contact the CyLab partnerships team.