Dakota State joins international cyber consortium

April 27, 2022

Dakota State University is now part of an international artificial intelligence (AI) cyber consortium.

DSU President José-Marie Griffiths is in Sweden this week for the formal announcement regarding the Edge Learning Lab. The Lab was launched in 2021 by AI Sweden, the Swedish national center for applied artificial intelligence, and several industrial partners.

Edge Learning is a new, high-potential area of AI, designed with a focus on keeping training data at or near the source (on “the edge”). This technology has been identified as a critical growth area in AI, which will enhance data privacy, defray data transfer costs, and distribute computational efforts in security, healthcare, finance, space, mobile electronics, and automotive applications.

After a year of gaining significant international attention, the Edge Learning Consortium is being launched by international academic and industry leaders to accelerate technological development and the application of edge learning globally. The first priorities for the consortium include application areas such as Mobility, Space, Health, and Cyber Security.

Within the framework of the consortium, there will be several application-focused labs, including the Global Center of Excellence for Cyber Security for Distributed Intelligence. Dakota State is included in this cyber security lab initiative, incorporating the Madison Cyber Labs (MadLabs^®), AI Sweden, and RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden), which is Sweden’s research institute and innovation partner. These partners will work to create a global cyber security lab to distribute intelligence focusing on cyber security in Edge Learning as a part of the consortium.

This program will involve a 10-week program for graduate students from both DSU and Sweden, who will spend four weeks at DSU, four weeks in Sweden, with two additional weeks for program development work. Lead faculty members from DSU include Dr. Austin O’Brien, Associate Professor, and Dr. Mark Spanier, Assistant Professor. Both are faculty in The Beacom College of Computer and Cyber Sciences.

Having served as a commissioner on the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, Griffiths was invited last fall to the Future of Democracy Summit sponsored by AI Sweden, to discuss “Sustainable Citizenship in a Digital Age.” This event led to meetings between Dakota State and AI Sweden to be a part of this consortium. She is also a member of the consortium advisory board.