Welcome To Our Newsletter

Greetings! We are thrilled to launch our first newsletter to our partners, members, and industry friends – just like you. Becoming one of the nation's fastest growing and inclusive institutions in the country, CyManII seeks to change and secure the cybersecurity and manufacturing sectors by collaborating and working with major leading universities, nonprofits and industry experts in cybersecurity, smart and energy efficient manufacturing, and supply chains.

With an impressive membership network and hundreds of technical engineers across the nation, we hope to showcase our efforts and highlight how our members are assisting us in every step of our mission and national goal via this monthly newsletter.

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Institutional News

UTSA, NSCC Downtown Building Update

In January 2021, UTSA marked the groundbreaking of its $90 million School of Data Science and National Security Collaboration Center, the first new building in a series planned as part of its Downtown Campus expansion. The 167,000-square-foot, six-story structure will anchor UTSA to San Antonio’s prospering high-tech corridor and advance the university’s vision to earn national recognition as a research-intensive institution and bolster San Antonio’s national standing as Cyber City USA. CyManII is eager to co-locate with the NSCC and SDS!

The Texas Manufacturing x Transformation Hub (TxMx Hub) is CyManII’s newest facility focusing on accelerating training and strategic collaborations that safeguard installations and transportation assets operated by U.S. public- and private-sector partners. The training facility is the next step in the shared goal of The University of Texas System, UTSA and CyManII to strengthen America’s cybersecurity workforce by upskilling and reskilling workers.

By partnering with Port San Antonio, the TxMx Hub will be located on the port’s technology innovation campus where it will provide novel and necessary cybersecurity education, along with training and certification opportunities for the nation’s manufacturers. These education, training, and certification opportunities have a focus on cyber-informed, secure-by-design architectures which will assist manufacturers in becoming better protected from, and more resilient against, cyber-attacks.

Through the collective expertise and knowledge brought forth by the Global Resilience Federation team and CyManII’s growing network amongst the cybersecurity and manufacturing sectors, we are pleased to announce the official launch of the first Manufacturing Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MFG-ISAC).

The MFG-ISAC is dedicated to defending U.S. manufacturers from malicious cyber activity, expands awareness of threats, and crowd-sources the best practices for purposes of warning, mitigation, recovery, and future resilience.

Through this partnership, CyManII also seeks to begin cultivating a cyber-focused group comprised of respected industry, federal entities, manufacturing institutes, and individuals highly invested in understanding the current threats and attacks faced by the nation’s manufacturing and supply chain sectors, as well as the work being conducted across their technical foundational tasks, projects, and expansive training centers across the nation.

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Cyber 2 Secure American

Manufacturing and Critical Infrastructure Summits

In March 2022, CyManII hosted its first Cyber 2 Secure American Manufacturing and Critical Infrastructure Summit with hundreds of attendees from across the nation. Along with our sponsors, the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS), H-E-B, and The University of Texas at San Antonio, the event also hosted dozens of technical industry vendors as well as initiated our partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and enhanced efforts to stand-up the Manufacturing ISAC with the Global Resilience Federation.

Stay tuned as we will soon announce our next summit stop!

Growing Collaboration

With MFG-USA

Network

Manufacturing USA® is a national network created to secure U.S. global leadership in advanced manufacturing through large scale public-private collaborations in the technology, supply chain and workforce development areas.

CyManII, along with other growing manufacturing innovation institutes (sponsored by either the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Defense, or Energy), bring together member organizations from manufacturers of all sizes, academia and government to work on major research and development projects relevant to industry and train the workforce on advanced manufacturing skills.

In August 2021, CyManII was recognized by President Joe Biden and his administration during an address given to the National Cybersecurity Summit. Focusing efforts on how the U.S. public and private sectors have been attacked in various high-profile cybersecurity breaches by increasingly sophisticated malicious cyber activity, President Biden addressed threats affecting the nation and discussed how the government, education, and private sectors can work together to improve the nation’s cybersecurity posture.

Already on the path toward establishing expectations for quality security that will be followed and highly respected by OEMs, SMMs, OTs, and integrators, CyManII is overcoming common barriers and gaining national attention in order to keep the United States as the global innovator for manufacturing, cybersecurity, and energy efficiency; attaining cyber innovation to secure U.S. manufacturing.

Membership Announcements

The CyManII Partnership Ecosystem

Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, CyManII prides itself in being an inclusive, diverse national research institute comprised of the most respected and qualified individuals across a multitude of over 50 members within our network, including recognized leaders in smart and energy efficient manufacturing, with a deep expertise in research and development, supply chains, factory automation, and workforce development from academia, national laboratories, and industries. Combining their expertise and experience, our team works together to protect U.S. manufacturers against cybersecurity threats.

Led by The University of Texas at San Antonio, CyManII has also leveraged the strongest Department of Energy National Laboratories including Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratory. Over the past two years, CyManII has aggregated leading minds in smart and advanced manufacturing, securing automation and supply chains, workforce development, and cybersecurity. CyManII's research team brings to bear the most powerful expertise and infrastructure needed to secure the digital transformation that will continue to propel the U.S. in innovated research in manufacturing for decades.

Read Our Press Release

Engaging Across The Nation

CyManII has had the opportunity to participate in various cyber community events across San Antonio. Through partnerships with the FBI, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, National Security Agency and San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, CyManII is eager to continue organizing and sponsoring future events!

Follow CyManII on social media to see where we end up next!

Join Our Growing Network

Direct engagement with industry and institute stakeholders is critical to establishing our priorities and research initiatives.

Are you and your organization interested in research and development assistance, implementation services, workforce training, exclusive partnerships, energy sustainability and a solution marketplace? Contact our engagement team today and learn how you can join our network!

Technical Recognitions

Winner Of The Commonwealth

Cyber Initiative Impact Award

Congratulations to Duminda Wijesekera, the first recipient of the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative Impact Award!

Dr. Wijesekera is a Professor of Computer Science and is currently the acting Chair of the Department of Cyber Security Engineering at George Mason University. The CCI Impact Award recognizes an individual, group, or organization who has conducted breakthrough cybersecurity research or innovation, and has developed creative ways to improve cybersecurity workforce opportunities for our industry partners or students. The winner was selected by a subcommittee of five members of the CCI Technical Advisory Board.

Not only has Dr. Wijesekera become an expert in safety and security of networked control systems for smart transportation and cyber manufacturing, but he has also been instrumental to the development of the CCI Living Innovation lab at Mason; developed open source and commercial-grade 5G and NextG testbeds; and worked in formalization of biopharma manufacturing automation system that is being developed for COVID-19 vaccines.

Congratulations Duminda!

Read CCI Press Release

Team Member Highlights

Dr. Rattikorn Hewett is a Professor of Computer Science at Texas Tech University. Her research in Artificial Intelligence includes intelligent data understanding, model-based reasoning, agent control mechanisms and blackboard systems.

Currently, Dr. Hewett serves on the Baselining team!

Sarah Roscoe is a Computer Science PhD student and Graduate Research Assistant at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is interested in Graph Theory, Bioinformatics,

and Cybersecurity.

Currently, Sarah serves on the SMA team!

Dr. Zoran Duric is the program coordinator for the Master of Computer Science Degree. He has taught at George Mason University since 1995. His main research interests are applying computer vision and video image processing to analyze movements of humans and vehicles.

Currently, Dr. Duric serves on the SMA team!

Dr. Greg Shannon is an internationally recognized cybersecurity expert with over 30 years of academic, government, and industry experience.

Dr. Shannon currently serves as CyManII's Chief Science Officer, INL's Chief Cybersecurity Scientist, and a member of the governing board for the Women in CyberSecurity Conference (WiCyS.org).

Way to lead the team, Greg!

David Carter is an award-winning engineer with Sandia National Laboratories. David’s research background spans from satellite electromagnetic compatibility and interference testing to physical security analysis, electronic device analysis and cybersecurity.

David currently serves as CyManII's Co-VP for Securing Automation and Secure Manufacturing Architecture.

Great work, David!

Dr. Gabriela Ciocarlie is an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UTSA. Her expertise is in anomaly detection, distributed alert correlation, network and application level security, cyber physical systems security and distributed system security.

Dr. Ciocarlie currently serves as CyManII's Co-VP for Securing Automation and Secure Manufacturing Architecture.

Keep shining, Gabriela!

CyManII/UTSA Technical

Collaboration Day

CyManII had the opportunity to share with select members of The University of Texas at San Antonio’s faculty and staff the technical innovations and work being conducted at our Institute. Technical teams including members of the Secure Manufacturing Architecture (SMA), Cybersecure Energy and Emissions Quantification (CEEQ), and Roadmapping teams also had the opportunity to highlight their latest innovations and plans for Year 2 and beyond.

A big thanks to The Office of the Vice President for Research, Economic Development, and Knowledge Enterprise at UTSA for assisting in the production of this collaborative event.

Learn More

Quick Reminders For The Road

Beware Of Phishing

Due to the institute's growing nature and the ever looming cyber threat, members of our information technology support team wanted to remind all to always remain vigilant and beware of phishing attempts. If an email or something with your computer seems suspect, then err on the side of caution and reach out to our IT team.

For more information or questions, please contact our Director of Technology, Drew Morehead.

Email IT Support

Welcome To Our Chief

Financial Officer

We are thrilled to announce that our very own Jacob Sanchez has been named CyManII's Chief Financial Officer. Jacob has over ten years at UTSA and going on two years with CyManII.

Congratulations Jacob!

Email Finance Team

Register And Find Us At The Smart Manufacturing Experience

Sponsored by SME, CESMII, AMT and Manufacturing USA, CyManII is excited to be featured at this year's Smart Manufacturing Experience on

June 7 - 9, 2022. We are excited to highlight CyManII’s leadership and technical team members as they present exciting conference track sessions over our growing workforce development initiative, Cybersecurity Threat Awareness, and introducing our Secure Manufacturing Architecture for Smart Manufacturing and Supply Chains.

Learn And Register

UTSA Achieves Carnegie

R1 Classification

In December 2021, UTSA announced that it has achieved the R1 Classification from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. This elite designation validates the breadth and strength of UTSA’s knowledge enterprise and aligns the university with the nation’s top public and private research institutions.