RPI Institute of CyberSecurity (RICS)

Advancing Trustworthy Computing for the AI and Quantum Era

The RPI Institute of CyberSecurity (RICS) is being established as an interdisciplinary research community focused on emerging security challenges in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, advanced hardware, cloud and networked systems, and critical infrastructure.

RICS will bring together expertise from across RPI to advance secure, resilient, and trustworthy computing while creating opportunities for collaboration among researchers, industry, government, and other research institutions.

Research at RICS

RICS will bring together complementary expertise across traditional cybersecurity and emerging areas of trustworthy computing.

AI Security & Trustworthy AI

Security, privacy, reliability, and trustworthiness of artificial intelligence systems, including adversarial machine learning, AI red teaming, model security, secure AI deployment, and AI assurance.

Quantum Security & Post-Quantum Computing

Security challenges associated with quantum computing, including post-quantum cryptography, quantum cloud security, secure quantum software, quantum-system assurance, and quantum-resistant computing.

Systems, Network & Cloud Security

Security and resilience of distributed computing environments, including cloud and enterprise security, network security, malware defense, zero-trust architectures, and resilient infrastructure.

Hardware & Semiconductor Security

Security at the hardware and semiconductor level, including secure architectures, semiconductor supply chains, chiplet security, side-channel and fault attacks, and trusted hardware.

Critical Infrastructure & Cyber-Physical Security

Security and resilience of energy, transportation, water, manufacturing, autonomous systems, industrial control systems, and other critical infrastructure.

Privacy, Resilience & Trustworthy Computing

Secure-by-design, privacy-preserving, and resilient approaches to building trustworthy computing systems across the technology stack.

Programming engineers between the ages of 20-30 are developing code on their computers
Building an Interdisciplinary Community

RICS is being developed as a community that brings together researchers whose work intersects with cybersecurity and trustworthy computing, even when cybersecurity is not the primary focus of their discipline.

We envision a community of faculty, researchers, and students working across disciplinary boundaries to identify common challenges, develop new research directions, and pursue collaborative opportunities.

Faculty and researchers interested in contributing to the emerging RICS community are invited to connect with us.

Back View in the System Control Center Operator Working. Multiple Screens Showing Technical Data.
RICS Cyber Range Initiative

RICS envisions a scalable cyber range supporting cybersecurity research, education, experimentation, and workforce development.

The initial focus will be a virtualized environment for realistic attack-and-defense exercises, cybersecurity experimentation, student competitions, and research testbeds. As the initiative develops, the cyber range could expand to support emerging areas including AI security, quantum security, hardware and semiconductor security, cloud systems, and critical infrastructure.

The long-term vision is to create a distinctive cybersecurity experimentation and training capability for Rensselaer researchers and students, while creating opportunities for collaboration with government and industry.

Student works on a problem at a white board
Join Us

RICS is being built as an interdisciplinary community, bringing together researchers whose work intersects with cybersecurity and trustworthy computing. We welcome faculty and researchers interested in contributing to this emerging community, developing new research collaborations, and helping shape the future of cybersecurity at RPI.

Interested in getting involved? Connect with us to learn more about opportunities to engage with RICS.

From the Director

"Our vision is to build a community where researchers from different disciplines can find common challenges, develop new research directions, and create technologies that make the systems of tomorrow more secure, resilient, and trustworthy."

Kanad Basu headshotKanad Basu
Director, RPI Institute of CyberSecurity
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Back to top