Washington State University researchers have received a three-year National Science Foundation grant that will train U.S. and Swedish students in cybersecurity research for artificial intelligence (AI) applications.
The $450,000 grant from NSF’s International Research Experiences for Students program will support semester-long exchanges for WSU undergraduates to conduct cybersecurity research with a cohort at Sweden’s Linköping University (LiU). Separately funded by Sweden, the LiU student cohort will visit WSU in a subsequent semester. The program aims to foster international research, cultural exchange, and collaboration.
As AI applications have expanded within a growing number of devices, ensuring the security of generated data has become increasingly challenging, said Assefaw Gebremedhin, associate professor in WSU’s School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science who is heading the project.
“These cyber systems are pervasively targeted by sophisticated adversaries, who seek and exploit system vulnerabilities,” he said. “Securing cyber devices sustains national security and reflects strategic goals to maintain leadership in cybersecurity and AI innovation.”
The students in the program will each receive a $12,000 fellowship and will focus their research on developing security technologies that can protect AI-augmented government, industry, and private cyber installations. They will investigate machine learning algorithms with enhanced security, anomaly-detection and privacy-preserving features tailored for diverse systems, including for healthcare, autonomous vehicles, and smart cities. In their research, students will have access to Sweden’s high-performance computing and visualization centers while also taking courses taught in English.
“The scholars will develop innovative cryptographic techniques designed to defend against the unique threats posed by AI applications in cyber environments,” said Gebremedhin.
The number of jobs for cybersecurity experts is expected to grow by 35% in the next decade with more than 19,000 available positions every year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
WSU began offering a cybersecurity degree in 2023 to meet burgeoning demand for computer scientists with expertise in cybersecurity. An increasing number of companies use cloud services in their operations, and the number of cyberattack incidents have been steadily increasing. Data theft of critical information and ransomware that harms computer systems are challenges for companies across the world. The number of jobs for cybersecurity experts is expected to grow by 35% in the next decade with more than 19,000 available positions every year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. WSU’s cybersecurity program is offered in Pullman, the Tri-Cities, and Everett. Students from each of these three campuses will participate in this program.
“Professionals with expertise in AI and cybersecurity are in high demand among domestic and multinational corporations, as these skills are essential to ensure security of data, connections, and critical infrastructure,” said Gebremedhin. “The participating students will elevate their preparation to operate successfully in the cybersecurity and AI fields at the highest international levels and expand Sweden’s and the United States’ resilience against cyberattacks from malicious agents.”
This award is one of the outcomes of a long-term European-university engagement strategy developed by Joseph Iannelli, professor in WSU’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and director of WSU’s Scandinavia and European-Union Erasmus+ projects. Extending to several European universities and WSU colleges, the overarching objective is to establish mutually beneficial partnerships with peer universities in order to secure substantial extramural international-collaboration funding and advance education and research collaboratively and more effectively than allowed by the resources of any single institution.
“It is exciting to contribute to graduating internationally minded, diverse students for leadership in multicultural global societies,” said Iannelli. “Through their experiences in this program, the students will develop skills and international attitudes to adapt their behavior to interact effectively with those who are culturally different from them, interpret issues and situations from more than one cultural perspective, seek out international or intercultural opportunities, and use diverse cultural frames of reference and alternative perspectives to think critically and solve cybersecurity problems that transcend national boundaries.”
The program will get underway in the fall 2025 semester, with the first cohort of WSU students traveling to Sweden in the spring semester of 2026. Applications for the program will be available later this fall. In addition to Gebremedhin and Iannelli, collaborators on the project include Mohamed Elmahallawy at WSU Tri-Cities and Sergey Lapin from WSU Everett.
