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Graduating senior Mitchell Martinez overcame challenges to reach new heights

Colleen Rich — Mon, 10 May 2021 14:34:35 +0000

Graduating senior Mitchell Martinez overcame challenges to reach new heights Colleen Rich Mon, 05/10/2021 - 10:34

Mitchell Martinez. Photo provided

“When you have the ability to do what you love, love what you do and have the ability to impact people. … That’s having a life of success.”

George Mason University’s Mitchell Martinez has never met former college football icon Tim Tebow, but the graduating senior couldn’t believe more in his definition of success.

That’s how Martinez, 22, also feels as he concludes an extraordinary career of collegiate achievement while at Mason and looks ahead to the next chapter of his life. Overcoming personal and financial hardships along the way, the cyber security engineering major from the Volgenau School of Engineering and Honors College student is poised to become the first in his family to earn an advanced degree and secure a high-paying job.

Martinez is already a cyber security engineer at CACI, where he began as an intern, and plans to eventually pursue a PhD in computer science.

“This might not seem as big of a deal to others,” he said, “but getting here as a Hispanic was not easy, and I want to make it easier for others.”

Working nearly full time since the beginning of his tenure at Mason, Martinez attended classes during the day before going straight to work until late at night and then staying up until the wee hours of the morning doing math homework before starting the day all over again.

Despite the frenetic schedule, he nonetheless found time to be involved socially in the Theta Tau Professional Engineering fraternity and seven intramural title-winning athletic teams. Martinez also spent a semester studying abroad in Switzerland prior to the global pandemic.

He found his passion and professional interest at CACI International Inc., a Northern Virginia-based firm that provides information technology and network solutions for the defense, intelligence and e-government sectors. Martinez has particular interest in offensive security, culminating in a year-long research project that focused on developing a cyberattack platform that can be mounted on working dogs. He then took his experiences to develop a sophisticated attack evasion tool for his senior design sponsor, Lockheed Martin Space.

“In this field, it is the goal of penetration testers and security developers to identify the weaknesses of systems—novel or complex—and work alongside engineers to not only prevent future attacks, but also optimize those systems for usability,” he said.

Martinez, who grew up in Lewis Center, Ohio, before eventually landing in Virginia with his family, attributed his competitiveness and his own innate curiosity for drawing him to computer security.

Martinez, who hopes to pursue a career in cybersecurity management and someday become a professor, credited his mentor Thomas Winston, an assistant professor for cyber security engineering within Volgenau, for having the greatest influence on him at Mason.

Winston called Martinez an “amazing person, with unbounded potential.”

“He was in many of my classes, always did an outstanding job and always showed the very best of student scholarship, motivation, drive and just overall interest,” Winston said of Martinez. “Honestly, I will likely remember Mitch for many years to come. He was a shining star in the cyber security program.”

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SCHEV approves Mason’s College of Engineering and Computing

Colleen Rich — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 15:53:43 +0000

SCHEV approves Mason’s College of Engineering and Computing Colleen Rich Wed, 03/24/2021 - 11:53

In This Story

Kenneth Ball

Ariela Sofer

Sanjeev Setia

Archive photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

Earlier this week, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) approved Mason’s proposal to set the stage for a reorganization of the Volgenau School of Engineering to a newly formed College of Engineering and Computing, comprising the proposed School of Computing and Volgenau School of Engineering. The College of Engineering and Computing will be led by Ken Ball. The change will become effective on April 1, 2021.

“The Volgenau School of Engineering has greatly benefited over its history from its foundation in computing and information technology,” said Dean Ken Ball. “The visionaries who started the engineering school at Mason grounded in computing and information technology would be proud of its evolution and growth as it becomes the new College of Engineering and Computing.”

Provost Mark Ginsberg said the formation of the new college marks an exciting time for Mason.

“The College of Engineering and Computing will be a transformative structure that will advance our capacity in these fields while also supporting collaboration among disciplines and our engagement in the vibrant and growing corporate community in our region,” Ginsberg said.

The School of Computing proposal is under review with the SCHEV staff. The final review and approval processes are anticipated to completed in late May.

The School of Computing and the Volgenau School will be led by two interim divisional deans—Sanjeev Setia as interim divisional dean for computing and Ariela Sofer as interim divisional dean for engineering—until the search for permanent divisional deans is completed.

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Mason to lead regional hub for national cybersecurity advanced manufacturing innovation partnership

Melanie Balog — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 10:05:05 +0000

Mason to lead regional hub for national cybersecurity advanced manufacturing innovation partnership Melanie Balog Fri, 11/20/2020 - 05:05

George Mason University is poised to be named a managing member in the Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CyManII), a $111 million public-private partnership led by the University of Texas at San Antonio. CyManII will have a five-year corporative agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy to lead a consortium of 59 proposed member institutions in introducing a cybersecure energy-ROI that drives American manufacturers and supply chains.

“CyManII represents a great step forward for U.S. and Virginia’s leadership in cybersecurity and advanced manufacturing,” says Volgenau School of Engineering Dean Ken Ball. “Mason’s well-recognized strength in cybersecurity research and its offering one of the largest cybersecurity engineering academic programs in the nation position it incredibly well to support CyManII’s ambitious five-year goals.”

As part of its national strategy, CyManII will focus on four high priority areas where collaborative research and development can help U.S. manufacturers: securing automation, securing the supply chain network, improving energy efficiency, and building a national program for education and workforce development. CyManII’s research objectives will focus on understanding the evolving cybersecurity threats to manufacturing industries, developing new cybersecurity and energy-conserving technologies and methods, and sharing information and knowledge with the broader community of U.S. manufacturers.

Mason anticipates managing and operating CyManII’s East Coast headquarters on its Arlington Campus. The headquarters will house CyManII’s primary offices, meeting space, and training facilities in the National Capital Region.

It will contain lab space and equipment to demonstrate, test, and validate CyManII’s emerging cybersecurity and advanced manufacturing technologies and products. The 13,000-square-foot facility will support robotic platforms to evaluate security vulnerabilities, especially the impact of 5G on autonomous vehicles, the power grid, and smart manufacturing. The space will also host a robotic smart manufacturing testbed.

Mason researchers from the Volgenau School of Engineering will play key roles in CyManII’s first-year projects, including finding ways to protect manufacturing supply chains from cyber threats and designing better security into advanced manufacturing plants.

“CyManII is another step forward in Mason’s rapidly expanding leadership in the National Capital Region,” said Interim Vice President for Research, Innovation, and Economic Impact Aurali Dade. “We expect to leverage our many partnerships with the area’s technology leaders to grow advanced manufacturing here.”

CyManII is funded by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) and co-managed with the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER).