Get technical on crime

From evidence analysis and explosives research to cyber threat prevention, URI leads the way in global public safety.

Our annual Cybersecurity Symposium, commissioned by U.S. Representative James R. Langevin brings together leading authorities in computer security and digital forensics who work to protect the nation and its economy from cyber threats. The symposium is just one aspect of our nationally renowned Digital Forensics and Cyber Security Center where students are exposed to real-world digital forensics casework for local law enforcement agencies in a teaching laboratory setting, do research in digital forensics and cyber security concepts, tools and techniques, and work alongside faculty to develop new models for understanding cyber security issues in the power grid.

The National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security have just given URI the nation’s premier academic certification for cybersecurity education.

In our first-of-its-kind forensic chemistry program, accredited by the American Chemical Society and heavily focused on chemistry as a core component of forensic science, students learn from internationally acclaimed faculty and researchers. Among them is explosives expert Chemistry Professor Jimmie Oxley, who is regularly called upon to collaborate with the FBI and governments worldwide on terrorist attacks. Her expertise in energetic materials and pyrotechnics helped make URI a Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence, where students work with Oxley and others to improve the nation’s ability to detect, mitigate, and respond to explosives-related threats.

Both programs grew out of URI’s Forensic Science Partnership, a collaboration with the Rhode Island State Crime Lab and local law enforcement that brings together several academic disciplines with a connection to the fight against crime. For example, Textiles Professor Martin Bide helped the FBI establish a national fabric dye database, while Engineering Professor Otto Gregory and Chemistry Professor Bill Euler have examined pipe bomb fragments in collaboration with Oxley and trace evidence in a Rhode Island cold case. And that’s just to name a few.

So successful is URI’s leadership in global safety issues that in March 2012, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano appointed URI President David Dooley to the newly formed academic panel to address national security issues. And, the National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security have just given URI the nation’s premier academic certification for cybersecurity education – the designation as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education. Put all of these together, and it makes for really big thinking that will help crime fighters everywhere.

URI Digital Forensics and Cyber Security Center

Find out more about the Cybersecurity Symposium, held on May 2, 2012, with Computer Science Professor Victor Fay-Wolfe, founder of the URI Digital Forensics and Cyber Security Center