Alabama’s Auburn University is expanding its cybersecurity capabilities with a new research center that places artificial intelligence at the forefront of digital defense efforts. The university’s strategic pivot comes as AI-powered cyber threats increasingly target organizations, creating an urgent need for cross-disciplinary approaches that both leverage AI for security and ensure AI systems themselves remain secure against exploitation.
The big picture: Auburn University has established the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity Engineering (AU-CAICE), rebranding and expanding its existing cybersecurity research program to address evolving technological threats.
- The center brings together 27 faculty members from various disciplines to develop AI-driven cybersecurity solutions across three specialized research areas.
- According to cybersecurity firm Darktrace, 78 percent of chief information security officers report that AI-powered cyber threats are significantly impacting their organizations.
Key research focus: AU-CAICE structures its work around three interconnected research domains that address both offensive and defensive applications of artificial intelligence in cybersecurity.
- CyberAI research explores how artificial intelligence can enhance cybersecurity capabilities and defenses.
- SecureAI focuses on ensuring AI technologies themselves remain protected from compromise or exploitation.
- SecureCyberAI combines both approaches, which center director Gerry Dozier describes as requiring “real-time, self-healing, anti-fragile arms race systems for securing an AI system.”
Behind the numbers: The center builds upon a solid foundation of previous research success through its predecessor organization.
- Since 2017, Auburn’s Cyber Research Center (ACRC) has secured more than $10 million in research awards, including contracts with the U.S. Army and CIA.
- The formalized restructuring places artificial intelligence more centrally in Auburn’s cybersecurity research agenda.
Broader ecosystem: AU-CAICE aims to function as a collaborative hub beyond its research and development mission.
- The center will partner with student organizations including the Ethical Hacking Club and Society for Responsible AI.
- External collaboration will extend to the McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security and the Auburn University Applied Research Institute.
What they’re saying: Dozier emphasized the center’s ambition to achieve national recognition while serving as a nexus for multisector partnerships.
- “We want our new center to be nationally recognized for being a team that successfully develops and cultivates scholarly, long-term, extramurally funded research and educational relationships,” he stated.
- Hari Narayanan, who leads AI initiatives at Auburn, noted that AU-CAICE complements the university’s expanded academic offerings, which now include new undergraduate and graduate degree and certificate programs in AI.
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