2026
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AV俱乐部鈥檚 NSERC CREATE program is on track to train 200+ cybersecurity professionals by August 2030
By Emily MacKinnon
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Two years into a multimillion-dollar research and training grant, AV俱乐部's NSERC CREATE (Collaborative Research and Training Experience) Cybersecurity Program is thriving. The second annual Industry Advisory Board Meeting and Research Showcase took place in the Goldberg Computer Science building on Thursday, June 18, and provided a snapshot of what the researchers, industry partners, and students are up to.
The CREATE Cybersecurity Day brought together nearly 75 participants, including 15 leaders from industry, government and partner organizations such as: Calian Group, Communications Security Establishment (CSE), CANARIE, Fortinet, ICTC (Information and Communications Technology Council), IBM, PureLogic IT, Nextria, PINQ虏, MDA Space, TensorByte, and BITSUMMIT. One of the highlights of the day was 36 lightning talks by CREATE trainees showcasing innovative research in cybersecurity for emerging technologies.
And what they鈥檙e up to is an impressive array of cybersecurity research, ranging from quantum computing to threat detection and reporting.
Dr. Srini Sampalli, program lead and professor in the Faculty of Computer Science, said there were over 800,000 recorded successful cyber-attacks in the last year. 鈥淐anada alone needs at least 25,000 highly skilled cybersecurity professionals to tackle these evolving problems,鈥� he says, highlighting the need for training programs like this to meet that need.
Dr. Srini Sampalli welcomes researchers, industry partners, and students to the second annual听Industry Advisory Board Meeting and Research Showcase. (Harsh Kaushik photo)
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The CREATE Cybersecurity Program is a six-year program designed to give students at all levels of study not only research experience, but also hands-on training by doing industry-related projects.
鈥淲e believe that cybersecurity is a problem that cannot be solved by technology alone,鈥� Dr. Sampalli shares. 鈥淪o ours is a multi-disciplinary program, and we have embedded cyber laws, cyber policy, cyber ethics, and cyber governance as part of our training and research curriculum.鈥�
What is cybersecurity?
One of the people in the room during the meeting was Kevin Wilson, Senior Director of Cyber & Risk as Calian Group, one of the grant program鈥檚 industry partners. Wilson explained that from an enterprise perspective, cybersecurity is the prevention and mitigation of 鈥渞ansomware, phishing scams, data theft, and, more recently, attacks powered by artificial intelligence.鈥�
Plenty of the attendees had experience either receiving or preventing such attacks and proved how multidisciplinary the knowledge of today鈥檚 cybersecurity professionals must be. 听
Jennifer LaPlante, Deputy Minister of Nova Scotia鈥檚 Department of Cybersecurity and Digital Solutions, said in a video message that cybersecurity is top of mind for governments, and programs like this one at AV俱乐部 are providing valuable education and experience to trainees, who will be well positioned to handle modern cybersecurity threats.
鈥淭he provincial government has lots of tools and applications that we develop or procure from others, and we need to ensure that software is developed appropriately and securely and is maintained,鈥� says Deputy Minister LaPlante, referencing the myriad platforms and portals the government manages. 鈥淭here鈥檚 the registry of motor vehicles and we manage elements around birth records, death records, land records. There are licenses and permits for restaurants, bars, and daycares. All of those pose potential security risks and it is paramount that we keep that data safe and secure.鈥�
Where do we go from here?
The future of cybersecurity studies in Canada is promising, according to Computer Science Dean and program co-lead Dr. Nur Zincir-Heywood. 鈥淎 university's most important job is to train the next generation, and businesses need the next generation to have the right skill set,鈥� she says.
Since the CREATE grant trains undergraduate and graduate students, all the way up to doctoral and post-doctoral fellows, Dr. Zincir-Heywood says AV俱乐部 is training the next generation to meet the needs of Canadian industries in every field.
Some of the industry partners and students after the lightning talks.听(Harsh Kaushik photo)
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Kevin de Snayer, VP Canada, IT and Cyber Solutions, Calian and Industry Advisory Board Chair, who joined the CREATE Day virtually from his trip to the Canadian North, stressed the importance of partnerships and knowledge sharing among industries and the academia.
For his part, Dr. Sampalli sees the program going even further. 鈥淲e don't want to end the program in 2030,鈥� he says. 鈥淲ith the help of industries, we want to create some kind of a cybersecurity institute, or a consortium that can continue to produce students and liaise with the industry and work with enhanced skill sets.鈥�