Focus on Research

Featured Projects

LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGIES TO ENHANCE RURAL ALABAMA’S LEADING AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES

Auburn University is one of three universities sharing a $28 million grant award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, or NIFA, to establish an Institute for Rural Partnership to research the causes and conditions of challenges facing rural areas. Auburn University’s project is an inter-disciplinary effort involving the College of Agriculture, the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, the McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security and the Interdisciplinary Center for Advanced Manufacturing Systems, or ICAMS. The goal of Auburn’s project is to leverage modern technologies to advance rural Alabama through poultry production and forest products and to reduce the pollution of bodies of water in rural Alabama by developing systems that manage and upcycle waste streams from agricultural processing facilities.

EXPANDING CYBER TRAINING AND EDUCATION WITH U.S. SECRET SERVICE'S NCFI

The U.S. Secret Service's National Computer Forensics Institute (NCFI) has partnered with Auburn to enhance programs and cybersecurity training. With the passage of the bipartisan NCFI Reauthorization Act, the focused courses directly supports state and local law enforcement, law enforcement officers across the country, as well as opens a new and sustainable student pipeline for growing the nation's cybercrime workforce.

Current projects:

• Counterfeit Component Detection and Counterfeit Digital Component Detection Curriculum Development
• Network Incident Response Framework Development
• Malware Reverse Engineering Curriculum Development

FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION LOW AND NO EMISSION COMPONENT ASSESSMENT PROGRAM

Auburn University was competitively awarded the Federal Transit Administration’s Low and No Emission Component Assessment Program (FTA LoNo CAP) to support transit vehicle manufacturers (TVM), suppliers and transit agencies who use (or plan to use) “green” public transportation. The LoNo CAP scope includes directed research, capital investments and testing in support of both the LoNo CAP and FTA’s mission, values, and goals.

SOUTHEAST REGION CYBERSECURITY COLLABORATION CENTER (SERC3)

The center, officially named the Southeast Region Cybersecurity Collaboration Center (SERC3), will bring together experts from the private sector, academia, and government to share information and generate innovative real-world solutions to protect the nation’s power grid and other key sectors. It will include a mock utility command center to train participants in real-time cyber defense. 

STATE OF ALABAMA SLCGP PROGRAM

The State of Alabama Office of Information Technology (OIT) has partnered with Troy University and Auburn University’s McCrary Institute on the Alabama State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program (SLCGP). Together, the three institutions will collectively serve as one entity for State Administrative Agency (SAA) purposes. Troy University will assist in the administration and monitoring of numerous programmatic, reporting, and training components of the grant program. At the same time, the McCrary Institute will oversee the interrelated cybersecurity functions and activities. The overarching goal of Alabama’s SLCGP is to raise the collective cybersecurity posture of our state by assisting local governments in determining their current cybersecurity readiness level, identifying key areas of improvement or enhancement, and providing pathways that enable entities to acquire the necessary resources to strengthen their systems and processes.

NATIONAL CYBER-INFORMED ENGINEERING STRATEGY (CIE)

To better safeguard the nation's energy infrastructure, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently released a National Cyber-Informed Engineering Strategy to integrate cyber resilience into the design, implementation, operation, and maintenance of critical energy infrastructure. The McCrary Institute helped craft the Strategy, as a member of the DOE's Securing Energy Infrastructure Executive Task Force and various technical working groups, in accordance with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Following the National CIE Strategy public announcement in June 2022. The McCrary Institute in conjunction with Idaho National Laboratory host the national roll-out of the strategy. Strategic Partnerships with National Labs • Idaho National Laboratory • Los Alamos National Laboratory • Oak Ridge National Laboratory • Savannah River National Laboratory

THE CYBERSPACE SOLARIUM COMMISSION 2.0

Upon completion of its official role in advancing some of the most significant cybersecurity legislation ever enacted, the Cyberspace Solarium Commission has transformed into CSC 2.0 in partnership with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and the McCrary Institute. The 501(c)3 will build on the Commission's work, furthering the impact of its findings and recommendations, and advancing research related to the cybersecurity of the commercial space industry.

CSC co-chairs Senator Angus King and Representative Mike Gallagher continue to serve as co-chairs of CSC 2.0 and all nine remaining CSC Commissioners are continuing their commitment to the mission by serving with CSC 2.0.