CISA Director Visits SCS as Part of CMU Visit

Monday, March 6, 2023 - by Cassia Crogan

CISA Director Jen Easterly recently spent a day engaging with the CMU community — including the School of Computer Science — on the importance of technology product safety.

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Jen Easterly recently spent a day engaging with the Carnegie Mellon University community — including the School of Computer Science — on the importance of technology product safety.

Easterly began her day at CMU with a national address entitled "Unsafe at Any CPU Speed: The Designed-in Dangers of Technology and What We Can Do About It," followed by a fireside chat with CMU Vice President for Research Theresa Mayer and a roundtable discussion with students about women in cybersecurity.

She then visited CyLab and attended a demonstration of picoCTF, a computer security education program with SCS ties that offers users a safe and unique hands-on experience as they reverse-engineer, break, hack, decrypt and think creatively and critically to solve challenges and capture digital flags while learning and practicing cybersecurity principles.

Easterly concluded her day with a visit to Carnegie Mellon Mission Control and the Robotics Institute's Robotics Lab to learn about CMU's space initiatives like the MoonRanger and Iris moon rovers.

"One of the main reasons I wanted to come to CMU is because of the strength of your computer science and software engineering programs — because this is where the next generation of software engineers and innovators are learning their craft," Easterly said during her morning remarks. "For the professors here this morning, you are responsible for the education of some of our nation's brightest young minds and for the knowledge they bring into the working world."

Read the full recap of Easterly's visit on the CMU News website.

For more information, Contact:
Aaron Aupperlee | 412-268-9068 | aaupperlee@cmu.edu