Workforce Impact

To keep up with increasing vulnerabilities to cyber-attacks, it is critical that we train the workforce of today as well as tomorrow.

Texas Tech researchers have implemented a variety of training and curricula that prepare professionals already in the workforce in addition to college and high school students preparing to enter the workforce in sectors like renewable energy, directed energy and electric and water utilities.

Critical Infrastructure Security Training

The West Texas Cyber Workforce Development Consortium established Critical Infrastructure Security Training, which provides a hands-on introduction to resilient, cyber-physical systems for critical infrastructures to industry professionals, college-level students and high school students.

Sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Regional Alliances and Multistakeholder Partnerships to Stimulate (RAMPS) Grant, the free training teaches participants how to manage IT infrastructure, monitor networks, troubleshoot issues, and implement security measures.

Trainees learn to secure critical infrastructure such as renewable energy, oil and gas, electric utilities and water facilities through a combination of online learning and hands-on experiences at the state-of-the-art Global Laboratory for Energy Asset Management and Manufacturing (GLEAMM) microgrid and a cyber-physical system (CPS) testbed.

OPAL-RT Technologies Sessions

Additional training sessions hosted by OPAL-RT Technologies on their Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) will also take place at Texas Tech in 2025. The sessions provide industry professionals and university students with opportunities to better understand and learn about CPS using real-time simulations.

Cybersecurity Preparedness Training

Texas Tech leads cybersecurity preparedness training through a Texas Talent Connections Development grant from the Texas Workforce Commission. The program combines efforts from Texas Tech, West Texas A&M and Group NIRE to train high school and university students as well as those already working in industry as information and operations systems security professionals.

The program has trained more than 200 individuals. Participants include several different affiliations, such as Sandia National Laboratory, Lubbock Power & Light, South Plains Electric Co-op, Golden Spread Electric Co-op, and other private industries, as well as high school students and university and college students.

We have developed partnerships with more than 20 private and federal organizations and four educational institutions.

University Cyber-Physical Security Center

Through the Department of Energy funded Clean Energy and Rural Electric Industry-focused University Cyber-Physical Security Center, Texas Tech is leading a diverse energy-cyber team that includes West Texas A&M, Sandia National Laboratories, OPAL-RT Technologies, Connected Energy, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, South Plains Electric Co-op, and Inductive Automation. The center models, develops, and field tests cyber-physical system (CPS) tools for research and training in the rural Southwest United States. The team is modeling several CPS architectures for electrical power systems in a controlled environment, developing cyberattack scenarios, storing network/physical operations data, and developing advanced solutions for Information Technology/Operational Technology monitoring, including training an anomalies and intrusion detection algorithm. A CPS tool is being developed to intelligently perform remedial actions in the advanced electrical systems, and the team is leveraging the existing training testbeds to develop a more rigorous cybersecurity training program, standards contributions, and commercial tools. The tools developed by the team will be tested in the grid operations centers and used for training the operators.

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)

The Department of Energy also supports Texas Tech undergraduate capstone fellowships in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) cyber-physical security. Undergraduate students investigate novel deep learning cyberattack detection algorithms in the IIoT manufacturing systems as part of their capstone projects. The students develop the CPS testbed for IIoT, perform analyses on cyberattacks, develop an intrusion detection system and a mitigation strategy against cyber-attacks, and present and publish in highly visible conferences.

Army Research Lab

The Army Research Lab supports a comprehensive research and workforce development program that spurs research and training ecosystems at Texas Tech and its partners, Angelo State University and the University of Texas at San Antonio. This program tackles defense-related challenges in cybersecurity to enhance our research capabilities and involve students in cybersecurity research and Department of Defense collaborations.