As the summer comes to an end and we approach our final presentation to the Idaho National Lab, taking a moment to sit down and reflect on the past two months is incredibly valuable (and gives me a nice break from PowerPoint). The past two weeks have been a whirlwind. Between wrapping up our final presentation materials and putting our finishing touches on the last Use Case paper, I look back on the past two months in awe at how quickly the time passed and how much we’ve learned throughout the process.

My understanding of the goals of Research and Development (R&D) on a broad scale and the program’s goals changed significantly from Week 1. I’ve gained a clearer understanding of the context of our research this summer as it relates to innovation in the fields of engineering and cybersecurity. I remember during Weeks 1, 2, and 3, when it was all very new and intimidating, and I didn’t quite grasp Cyber-Informed Engineering and why it was important. But as we continued to work on our Use Cases and wrote proposed countermeasures to real-world attacks on the electric grid, I understood why this new area of study (CIE) needs to be deployed in corporations and existing infrastructure operations. I also saw how our deliverables– the Use Case documents, videos, labs, and theoretical questions– played a role in the educational aspect of R&D to help scale the message to students like us.

I found the collaborative aspect of the program incredibly valuable. Not only have my teammates become some of my closest friends here at Pitt this summer, they have shown me how to do work effectively and take breaks when needed, two things I struggled with previously. Additionally, I found the Monday presentations, where all teams gathered to present their new findings week by week, very valuable because I learned about other cyber-intrusions in water systems, hospitals, dams, and more. This, along with the Tuesday meetings with the other Summer Research Fellowship cohorts, contributed heavily to the interdisciplinary environment that widened my perspective of other fields of research.

Now that SHURE-Grid comes to an end, I hope to keep the tenets of R&D in mind and hope to be in collaborative environments like the one it created this summer in my future research and career endeavors. I hope to use the work ethic and habits I picked up this summer in my daily life once the fall semester begins and beyond! Thanks for reading!