Hi! I’m Shanker Pillai, a rising sophomore participating in the SHURE-Grid program thus summer. I am a Computational Biology/Comp Sci double major. I applied for the SHURE-Grid program because I wanted to apply my Computer Science knowledge into a real-world situation. The cybersecurity aspect of the program also interests me. Outside of SHURE-Grid I am also doing a genetics research project this summer. I also enjoy playing basketball and tennis.

In the SHURE-Grid program, my group aims to explain how use of Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE), a new method for integrating cybersecurity measures into large-scale systems like water or electricity earlier and at the forefront of the design process, can be justified to be implemented in current and future systems. We believe that CIE will help systems be better protected against threats as well as making maintaining the security of the system easier and more efficient. We want to back that claim by interviewing many professionals currently in the field to see how applicable CIE could be in the real world. I personally hope to gain a greater understanding of cybersecurity from this project.