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Public Outreach

Louisiana Governor’s Commission on Cybersecurity

Louisiana Governor’s Commission on Cybersecurity (Cyber Commission) was created to address the growing cyber threat to networks, personal privacy, and critical infrastructure. The Cyber Commission is a statewide partnership comprised of key stakeholders, subject matter experts, and cybersecurity professionals from Louisiana's public sector, private industry, academia, and law enforcement. It serves as an advisory body to the State of Louisiana Senior Administration Officials in matters related to cybersecurity. UL Lafayette has strong participation in several committees of the Commission. 

The following faculty and staff are active members of the Commission:

  • Dr. Ramesh Kolluru, Vice President of Research and Sponsored program at UL is a member of the Cyber Commission. He is the Chair of the Information Sharing and Integration Committee, and the co-chair of the Cyber Risk, Assets and Capabilities Assessment Committee. 
  • Dr. Lakhotia is a member of the Committee on Workforce Development, Education, and Public Outreach of the Cyber Commission.
  • Dr. Edwards serves as a member of Cyber Risk, Assets and Capabilities Assessment Committee.
  • Dr. Michael Dunaway is a member of the Economic Committee.

Louisiana Supply Chain Transportation Council

The Louisiana Supply Chain Transportation Council (SCTC) was established by the State Legislature after the 2016 floods with the charter “to study and make recommendations regarding increasing resilience in various modes of transportation through increased communication, collaboration, development of geographic information technologies, and new innovations in transportation”.A main goal of the Council is to assess and mitigate cybersecurity risks to critical public and private sector supply chains and transportation networks.

The following faculty and staff are active members of the Council:

  • Dr. Ramesh Kolluru serves as the Chair of the Council’s Technology and Innovation Committee which has the oversight of the above activity.
  • Dr. Michael Dunaway serves as a member of the Tech/Innovation.

Ostrom Workshop on Cybersecurity and Internet Governance at Indiana University

The Ostrom Workshop focuses on the study of governance as it relates to a variety of research areas. Its Cybersecurity and Internet Governance encourages a polycentric approach to both Internet governance and cybersecurity risk management with scholars coming from diverse backgrounds including, but not limited to: Secure Computing, Law, Business, Criminology, Economics, Ethics, Public Policy, Media, Education, Psychological and Brain Sciences, Political Science, and International Relations. Only through such a multi-disciplinary, multi-sector, multi-stakeholder partnership might meaningful progress be made toward engendering sustainable models of Internet governance and an equitable cyber peace.

  • Dr. Edwards is a member of the Ostrom Workshop; he focuses on economics of privacy; expectations of privacy; probable cause to obtain data from devices; public reaction to corporate cooperation with law enforcement; trade-offs between privacy & convenience; consumer valuation of privacy.

Industry Startup and Incubator

Dr. Lakhotia is active in the transition of cybersecurity research into practice. He founded a startup, Cythereal, Inc, to transition the fruits of his research into practice. The company has attracted $1M in seed capital from Valmiki 504 Capital of New Orleans (a subsidiary of Valmiki Capital of New York). Dr. Lakhotia is also a founder and Managing Director of an incubator, TopXight LA, a subsidiary of TopXight Labs, NY. TopXight LA specializes in bringing early stage cybersecurity technology to market. Dr. Lakhotia is also a member of Opportunity Machine (OM), an incubator of Lafayette Economic Development Authority (LEDA).