School of Computing research centers focus on issues ranging from cybersecurity to artificial intelligence.
Each center is headed by a distinguished School of Computing faculty member who harnesses the resources of the school as well as those of external sponsors to conduct a wide range of projects.
From analyzing data from crowdsourcing to predicting outcomes at the C4I & Cyber Center, the school's researchers are working to solve a myriad of real-world challenges.
Doctoral students collaborate with faculty and contribute to the centers’ research by participating in sponsored projects, sharing their work at research conferences, and publishing articles and reports.
Research Centers
Center for Configuration Analytics and Automation (CCAA)
The Center for Configuration Analytics and Automation (CCAA) has been established under the National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry/University Cooperative Research Program (I/UCRC). The center is a multi-university and multi-industry consortium established and led by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in partnership with George Mason University and a broad membership of industry and government organizations.
The goal of the Center is to build the critical mass of inter-disciplinary academic researchers and industry partners for addressing the current and future challenges of configuration analytics and automation to improve service assurability, security and resiliency of enterprise IT systems, cloud/SDN data centers, and cyber-physical systems by applying innovative analytics and automation.
Center for Secure Information Systems
The Center for Secure Information Systems was created to provide a dedicated environment to encourage the development of expertise in both the theoretical and applied aspects of information systems security. Its scope encompasses information secrecy, integrity, and availability problems in military, civil, and commercial sectors.
Center of Excellence in Command, Control, Communications, Computing, Intelligence, and Cyber
Mason is the nation's first and only civilian university-based entity offering a comprehensive academic and research program in C4I and Cyber Performs research in sensing and fusion, C3 architectures, communications and signal processing, command support and intelligent systems, modeling and simulation, and distributed education and training. Provides a bridge between School of Computing faculty expertise and the needs of government/defense/intelligence information technology users. Conducts active outreach programs to government and industry.
Rapid Prototyping Research Center
The Rapid Prototyping Research Center (RPRC) focuses on providing its Department of Defense sponsors a unique perspective on rapid prototyping that aligns with Section 804 in the FY17 National Defense Authorization Act. Specifically, rather than developing a new system to satisfy intractable problems on the battlefield, the RPRC integrates new technology into existing infrastructure. This unique approach reduces acquisition costs since the sustainment tail is in place. It also reduces the time to field intractable solutions to the battlefield from 10-14 to 1-3 years and provides assurance that the prototype involved is integrated with the latest technology, not dated technology due to lengthy acquisition delivery timelines.
Research Laboratories
Computer Vision and Neural Networks Laboratory
Researchers in this lab work on human-computer intelligent interaction, biometrics, data compression and fractal image representations, object recognition, motion analysis and stabilization, attention and control mechanisms, automatic target recognition, and intelligent agents for autonomous navigation.
Living Cyber Innovation Lab (Arlington)
The CCI NoVa Node Living Cyber Innovation Lab will include a 5G testbed for the study of Cyber Physical System (CPS) security research, training, and experiential learning.
The lab will include autonomous vehicle sensor platforms to study 5G performance and security vulnerabilities. These platforms will support lidar, radar, stereo and night vision cameras that will be deployed on the NoVa Node’s fleet of vehicles to simulate autonomous driving. The vehicles will be used throughout the Northern Virginia Node and may remain in residence at Node partners’ institutions for periods of time to collect data. NoVa Node partners will leverage the NoVa Node 5G testbed in Arlington to analyze data, experiment, and develop new studies.
The Cyber Living Innovation Lab will include robotic platforms to evaluate 5G performance and security vulnerabilities including the study of 5G’s impact on security of Industry 4.0, and smart manufacturing, and the vulnerability of the supporting power grid.
This facility will also enable students to learn about CPS security, 5G, transportation networks, manufacturing, and power through hands on experience that extends classroom instruction.
Location: Vernon Smith Hall, Arlington