GW Reaffirmed as National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Research


July 25, 2025

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Our daily lives have never been more connected to the internet, and the need for trustworthy cybersecurity expertise has never been greater. To identify and validate cybersecurity expertise, the National Security Agency (NSA) sponsors a program to designate institutions as Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity (CAE-C). The Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Research (CAE-R) designation indicates that an institution increases the understanding of cyber defense technology, policy, and practices that allow our Nation to prevent and respond to catastrophic cyber events. Recently, the NSA renewed the George Washington University’s CAE-R designation through the academic year 2030.

“The NSA is the center of expertise for cybersecurity in the U.S government, so to have their certification proves we are world-class experts in cybersecurity research. It is in some sense an accreditation from the leading experts of cybersecurity in the U.S. government that our research is relevant and important,” said Arkady Yerukhimovich, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Cyber Security and Privacy Research Institute (CSPRI) affiliate.

As a certified Center of Excellence, GW receives national recognition for training cybersecurity experts and is eligible to apply for CAE-specific funding calls and scholarship programs.  Moreover, the CAE-R designation comes with inclusion in a CAE Community of Practice (CoP) for Cyber Research, which includes all of the institutions in the larger CAE-C community. The NCAE-C program includes over 400 institutions nationwide with CAE-R (Research), CAE-CD (Defense), and CAE-CO (Operations) designations. The CoP gathers at an annual symposium and monthly research presentation events. 

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Dr. Costis Toregas at the 2025 CAE in Cybersecurity Community Symposium.
Dr. Costis Toregas at the 2025 CAE in Cybersecurity Community Symposium. 

This year, Research Professor and CSPRI Director Dr. Costis Toregas attended the 2025 CAE in Cybersecurity Community Symposium in Charleston, South Carolina, on behalf of GW. The event focused on addressing the national cybersecurity workforce shortage and involved engaging keynotes, presentations, and discussions amongst the CAE-C community. Dr. Diba Hadi, the new Principal Director for the Cyber Academic Engagement Office (CAEO) at the Department of Defense, gave a keynote that emphasized the desire of the Department to adopt a “System of Systems” approach to enabling academic pathways in research and workforce development. 

As the conversation surrounding cybersecurity evolves, GW Engineering’s participation in these critical conversations cements the school’s position on the cutting edge of cybersecurity research and education.