Mississippi State takes the lead in state’s cybernetic growth
Over the last two years, Mississippi State University has made headlines with many new cybernetic partnerships, programs and investments.
Taken individually, each announcement further solidifies the university’s prowess in cyber science. Considered as a whole, these advancements don’t just fuel MSU’s reputation as a cyber powerhouse, they also establish the Magnolia State as a hub for emerging, high-tech business.
“Our university is uniquely charged with serving the entire state, and we have worked tirelessly to move Mississippi forward with innovative academic programs, transformative research and meaningful community engagement for nearly 150 years,” MSU President Mark E. Keenum said. “Today, groundbreaking advancements on our campus in high-performance computing, cybersecurity, data science and artificial intelligence are driving our mission to find solutions, meet challenges, create economic opportunity and prepare our students to be the leaders our state and nation need.”
From statewide partnerships to game-changing research and degree programs filling growing workforce needs, MSU is looking to a high-tech future and preparing the state for big things to come.
Leading the Pack
With ample space and easy access to infrastructure—like utilities and transportation—the state of Mississippi can fill many of the needs of new or growing businesses. What many people fail to realize is the Magnolia State also has the technical expertise to support the sophisticated needs of the tech sector—one of the fastest growing industries in America.
To marshal the state’s technological know-how and help industry see the state is the place to be, MSU spearheaded creation of the Mississippi Cyber Initiative, which recently broke ground on the Mississippi Cyber and Technology Center, its future 100,000-square-foot headquarters at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi.
“I think we’re at the beginning of changing the landscape of Mississippi,” explained Martin Rivera, MCI director. “People often don’t consider Mississippi to be a technology hub and are surprised this kind of technological work is happening here. But it is. And people are starting to realize that you don’t have to go to Alabama, California or Georgia to build your high-tech business.
“Mississippi State University and the Mississippi Cyber Initiative—we are solutions integrators,” he continued. “We identify needs, anticipate demands, define requirements and engineer innovative responses.”
Launched in 2021, the cyber initiative is a continuation of MSU’s existing partnership with Keesler—the epicenter of all U.S. Air Force cyber training. MCI brings together the state’s institutions of higher learning; local, state and federal government; military; and private industry to position Mississippi as a leader in cybersecurity. And in the world of tech-driven business and operations, cybersecurity is the key to economic development.
Recent statewide investments like the Compass Datacenters in Meridian and Amazon Web Services in Madison County are proof that MSU’s efforts are working. Valued at $10 billion each, these projects are the largest investments in the state’s history, which wouldn’t have been possible without the university’s cyber leadership.
“Cybersecurity is in everything we do,” explained Jim Martin, MSU’s associate vice president for corporate engagement and economic development. “It impacts every aspect of our lives. MCI pulls together a network to address these vulnerabilities.
“Cybersecurity is such an important element in artificial intelligence, autonomy, machine learning, high-performance computing—every aspect of business today,” he continued. “The cyber initiative really supports the theme of strength through collaboration. We’re addressing the needs, putting these solutions in place and showing that Mississippi is a place that can support your business needs and advanced innovation efforts.”
Solving Problems for Today—And Tomorrow
Credentialed as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity since 2001, MSU is one of only 12 universities in the country to have all National Security Agency cyber designations—cyber defense, cyber research and cyber operations.
The university has also established itself as an early leader in the emerging fields of artificial intelligence, machine learning and autonomy, all of which will be instrumental in the future of research and development, as well as emerging workforce needs.
Helping to power these efforts are MSU’s high-performance computing capabilities, which are powered by the university’s supercomputers known as Orion, Atlas and Hercules. Recent agreements with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture for $15 million and $4.5 million, respectively, have paved the way for the next generation of computing power for the AI-driven future.
Since 1996, 10 distinct MSU supercomputers have ranked among the most powerful in the world.
“We’ve been in the high-performance computing business for more than three decades now, and that vision from our leadership continues today with us making deliberate investments to be leaders in specific fields,” Martin said.
“But we don’t just have the computers. We use them to drive research and power innovation. All the growth we’ve had in these areas gives us the capability to solve problems for our stakeholders.
“People are starting to realize just how strong we are in these areas,” he continued. “We have the infrastructure, the workforce and the capabilities that help bring companies here to invest in our state and see just how far we can take new innovation.”
Julie Jordan, MSU’s senior advisor for artificial intelligence and data governance, said the university’s long record of adopting and developing these advanced technologies makes MSU a “super implementor.” That means MSU not only has access to the necessary components of big, sweeping technological advancements but also the expertise needed to bring it all together effectively.
“Not many places in the country have the people, experience, knowledge and infrastructure to manage supercomputing like what we have with our Applied Research Collaboratory,” Jordan said. “We’ve long been a leader in this, and that is attracting investment to the state.”
MSU’s Applied Research Collaboratory is a new umbrella organization that unites the university’s supercomputing capabilities with its centers focused on AI, autonomous vehicles, machine learning and, of course, cybernetic research. Bringing these individual units under a shared leadership helps the university encourage collaboration and maximize its resources and expertise in these areas to better address today’s challenges and predict tomorrow’s needs.
“Research drives economic development when it’s done right, like what we do here with applied research, problem-solving and our growing capabilities,” Martin said. “It makes Mississippi very attractive for people and businesses looking to relocate.
“With us being responsible for more than 50% of the research expenditures in the state, we truly are the center of gravity to lead and make things happen,” he continued. “We are proud of the partnerships we’ve developed across the university and across the state with other institutions and stakeholders. It makes us stronger, and people now look to us as the solutions integrators for their toughest problems.”
Being solutions integrators and super implementors stems from the university’s roots as a land-grant institution. The focus on practical approaches—applied approaches—to teaching, research and service with the land-grant designation means the MSU family puts a premium on advancing the needs of its community. And with a presence in each of Mississippi’s 82 counties, that “community” extends to the whole state.
“MSU has a history of getting things done,” Jordan said. “When someone gives us a task to do, they know it will be done and it will be done well. We’re a good investment for their dollar and a good investment for their time, and when people see that we’re involved, they know we have an eye out for their future, too.”
Jordan said the university is always looking to the needs of the future, and two of the biggest needs are figuring out what’s next for AI and what’s next for the cybersecurity realm.
“We tend to get out on the edge of things; to learn and develop those things before they become needed in daily life,” Jordan said. “We’re doing research that’s going to push the technology further, and we’re educating the students who will be able to go out and have careers in moving this science forward.”
Martin said that with MSU’s combination of leading-edge research, hands-on education and a drive to serve and lead, there is no reason the state’s I-10 corridor, for example, can’t be the next Huntsville, Alabama—long considered the high-tech hub of the Deep South.
“That’s the goal,” he said. “And that kind of success will spread—is already spreading—across the entire state, improving opportunities everywhere from the Delta and other rural areas to our population centers.”
Creating Tomorrow’s Workforce
Success for Mississippi State isn’t just measured in research investment and national rankings. Its most important metric is the success of its students and graduates. To help prepare these Bulldogs for the needs of tomorrow’s employment market, MSU has created new degree programs that will give them the knowledge and skills needed to not just find jobs but high-paying jobs that will help to shape the future.
“We provide the leadership for things like the Mississippi Cyber Institute and other high-tech collaborations, and we provide the research development to solve stakeholders’ unique problems,” Martin said. “But we also provide the graduates—the highly skilled workforce—these organizations need to stay competitive and profitable.”
Among the programs meant to serve the growing needs of a cyber-based workforce are bachelor’s degrees in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and data science, as well as master’s degrees in AI; data science; applied data science; and cybersecurity and operations. There are also numerous certificates, minors and professional endorsements in various computing areas that Bulldogs can add to their resumes.
MSU recently received $2.2 million from the Mississippi AI Talent Accelerator—the most of any institution—to enhance its capabilities in AI and machine learning, including the development of a first-of-its-kind graduate certificate in data center construction management.
David Shaw, MSU’s provost and executive vice president, said each of these investments in furthering educational opportunities helps ensure a well-trained, knowledgeable workforce for tomorrow.
“We saw an opportunity and a need for these programs and knew it was important for our students to embrace these sciences that will be the backbone of the future,” he explained.
“Between cyber programs, data science, AI and autonomy, we are a very high-tech, forward-leaning university,” Shaw continued. “Combined with our land-grant status, that puts us at the tip of the spear for equipping people for tomorrow’s world.”
In addition to providing classroom education and hands-on experiences in laboratory and research situations, Shaw said the university has leveraged its partnerships to create internships and cooperative education opportunities for students. These valuable real-world experiences help graduates make an impact from day one in their careers.
“We’re taking care of what matters, and that’s what makes MSU unique,” Martin said. “We’ve really created a fantastic pipeline of well-educated students who understand the application of this science and can have a direct impact as soon as they hit the job market. They’re the most qualified students around.”
The CyberCorps: Scholarships for Service program is one of the avenues available to Bulldogs looking to pursue education and a career in the cybernetic world. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, CyberCorps is designed to provide financial support to both undergraduate and graduate students who will eventually join the workforce and increase the number of information assurance professionals capable of protecting the nation’s critical information infrastructure.
MSU’s CyberCorps program is the fourth largest in the nation.
“All of these things MSU has to offer form this connective tissue that brings together everything needed for successful, high-tech investment,” Martin said. “When all of these different initiatives and capabilities come together, it puts a big bull’s eye on the state of Mississippi and MSU as the place to go for new innovation.”
Shaw noted that being a hub for innovation also means our graduates know how to grow with the changing needs of their industries.
“With our approach to education, we’re producing graduates who understand how to continually evolve as the technology changes,” he said. “Our applied approach means they’re not just learning facts and theories. They’re learning how to think and apply that knowledge to any situation because we’re not teaching for today—we’re teaching for tomorrow.”
Shaw credits the foresight of university leadership 30 or 40 years ago for setting MSU on the path to becoming a cybernetic powerhouse. That vision came largely in the form of the 1990s establishment of the MSU NSF Engineering Research Center for Computational Field Simulation. This center evolved into MSU’s High Performance Computing Collaboratory in the early 2000s and has long been the hub of the university’s computing power.
He said he believes the decision of today’s leaders—which includes rolling HPC2 into the Applied Research Collaboratory umbrella, establishing the Mississippi Cyber Initiative, pursuing advances in AI and machine learning, and creating the degree programs to accompany it all—will have the same lasting impact not just on the university but on the state as a whole.
“We have some of the best cyber programs in the country, and that’s because of decisions made a long time ago which have paid huge dividends, and we’ve only built on that success,” Shaw said. “I fully contend that if the state of Mississippi is going to move forward, the leader in that will be Mississippi State University.”
By Susan Lassetter, Illustrations by Heather Rowe using AI tools and reference images from OPA Photographers