AU Opens New Cybersecurity Engineering Laboratory

On Oct. 31, Anderson University will open the new Cybersecurity Engineering Laboratory in the AU Engineering Center. A ribbon-cutting ceremony and reception will take place from 9-10 a.m. and guests can park in the Hartung or Discovery Day parking lots. This laboratory will allow for state of the art learning opportunities for students in the School of Science & Engineering, especially in the cybersecurity, computer science, and computer engineering majors.

The Cybersecurity Engineering Laboratory houses several high-capacity servers including a blade chassis.  It also houses a set of enterprise access switches, edge switches, core switches, core routers, and wireless devices connected over a 40Gbps optical interconnect fabric.

The laboratory will allow students to gain real-life experience, as most large companies have a similar server room or data center. In the computer science and engineering courses, students can write code on their laptop or a lab computer, then they can connect through a high-speed network to the laboratory, and run their code on the servers, which have more than 20 physical cores and 256GiB of RAM, allowing complex code to be executed quickly. Faculty can also use it to work on their research or more computationally complex projects in upper level courses.

Ascension Information Services (AIS) was the lead sponsor for the Cybersecurity Engineering Laboratory, with generous support from their friends at Integration Partners, Extreme Networks, Inc. (formerly Avaya), and Dell EMC. This laboratory will also provide opportunities for Ascension to bring their staff to AU’s campus for periodic training. The value of the room and equipment is nearly $1 million.

The laboratory was built in part with Bolt-A-Blok, an innovative new building material from 3B Construction Solutions, Inc. The Bolt-A-Blok system is four times as strong as traditional blocks, can be assembled by a layperson, and can be disassembled and redeployed.

AU graduated the first class of mechanical engineers in 2017 and is expected to graduate the first class of electrical and computer engineering students this spring. AU is currently pursuing accreditation from the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc. (ABET), which recently visited campus, with official word regarding accreditation expected in August 2018. Accreditation is retroactive to the previously graduating classes.

Anderson University is on a mission to educate students for lives of faith and service, offering more than 60 undergraduate majors, 30 three-year degrees, 20 NCAA Division III intercollegiate sports, alongside adult and graduate programs. The private, liberal arts institution is fully accredited and recognized among top colleges for its business, computer science, cybersecurity, dance, engineering, nursing, and teacher education programs. Anderson University was established in 1917 in Anderson, Indiana, by the Church of God.