University of New Hampshire joins $111 million public-private partnership

UNH joins dozens of the nation’s leading research institutions in the Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CyManII), a $111 million public-private partnership launched Thursday, Nov. 19, 2020. Led by the University of Texas at San Antonio, CyManII is a five-year cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that aggregates the most advanced institutions researching smart and advanced manufacturing, secure automation and supply chains, workforce development and cybersecurity.

A far cry from the sooty factory floors of the 20th century, today’s “smart” factories are powered by massive amounts of data that control, sense and manage processes and supply chains. That makes these industrial infrastructures vulnerable to cyber-attacks that could compromise intellectual property and jeopardize American manufacturing jobs and workers.

“If you’re a manufacturer, you really need to protect your data, whether it’s quality assurance data you send along your supply chain or intellectual property that keeps the machines on your own factory floor producing state-of-the-art products,” says Brad Kinsey, professor of mechanical engineering and UNH lead for CyManII.

As a member, UNH and industry partners will have access to funding for research in cybersecurity and manufacturing. For example, says Kinsey, UNH’s John Olson Advanced Manufacturing Center, which he directs, “could be a great test bed for that idea of a cybersecurity manufacturing environment. We can showcase how we not only improve the manufacturing processes but also how we set up the firewalls to protect that data,” he says.

Read the full story from University of New Hampshire here.