Nearly two years after the Virginia Cybersecurity Challenge first kicked off in May 2021, two teams – representing Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Military Institute- were announced victorious at the annual CCI Symposium on April 17, 2023. The two winners are:
ElectroDefense
CCI Member University: Virginia Commonwealth University
Team Members: Dr. Radika Barua, William Salter, Dustin Hulse, Fahim Chowdhury, and Jonathan Lundquist
This team created a multifunctional coating that can provide high-frequency electromagnetic radiation shielding and passive thermal management to prevent electromagnetic sabotage of wireless components.
ElectroDefense plans to generate revenue by licensing the technology to companies in the IoT field. Over the long term, the solution has the potential to impact every network-connected device – an IoT market that Cisco estimated to be worth 14 trillion dollars in 2022.
Netsense
CCI Member University: Virginia Military Institute
Team Members: Tanner Mallari, Kolby Quigg, and Dr. Sherif Abdelhamid
Netsense offers a web-based modeling and analytical environment for running network dynamics and predicting the spread of malicious behaviors and computer viruses on 5G networks.
Netsense plans to offer packages with different combinations of their product’s features to customers in 5G network security. The Market Research Future (MRFR), a leading research firm, estimates that global revenue in the 5G security market will reach $5,226 million by 2026.
“As a faculty member, I didn’t learn any of this at school.” Sherif Abdelhamid, Netsense team member
As winners of the Virginia Cybersecurity Challenge, ElectroDefense and Netsense received mentoring, guidance, and support from US Ignite in refining their prototypes and identifying the best pathways to commercialization.
“As a faculty member, I didn’t learn any of this at school,” said Sherif Abdelhamid, a Netsense team member.
The Virginia CCI Challenge offered a unique chance for translating research into marketable products to the academic community at CCI member universities. Through this competition, both winning teams took home tens of thousands of dollars, and most importantly US Ignite will continue to work with them through their commercialization efforts.