The CINA Center proudly supported three projects this year through the DHS Summer Research Team Program for Minority Serving Institutions (MSI). We once again had an abundance of strong proposals, and we selected teams from the University of North Texas, Jackson State University, and the New York City College of Technology. Despite the ongoing challenges of a pandemic lockdown, these student and faculty researchers made great progress on projects ranging from data and network analytics to academic program development.
Our MSI Week in-person program returned this month, after pausing last year due to the pandemic. CINA hosted students and faculty researchers on George Mason University’s campus for a full agenda of workshops, talks, tours, and meetings with researchers and administrators. Our center had a chance to engage directly with some of the current and emerging talent at MSI schools, sharing the CINA and DHS missions and welcoming them to the community of scholars working on problems of national and global importance.
As I have watched our Summer Research Teams and MSI week participants over the years, I continue to be impressed with the wealth of talent and energy in MSI institutions across the country, and I am encouraged by their appetite for working on hard problems of interest to DHS and our community of stakeholders. These researchers are a valuable addition to CINA’s academic network, providing skills, viewpoints, ideas, and solutions which serve to make us stronger, deeper, and more capable.