About the Webcast

This webcast introduces and explores the seven topic areas that the SEI identified in its SEI Report, Advancing Cybersecurity: A Framework of Cyber Research Priorities. The SEI identified the seven areas because they have ongoing significance within cybersecurity's rapidly evolving landscape, and each one represents operational and research focus that will drive significant improvements across a wide range of missions and systems.

This webcast discusses these areas to show how they help pinpoint relevant technical challenges and define a vision-driven research agenda to meet the challenges of modern cyber threats in the context of the most sophisticated systems.

Date: October 22, 2026
Time: 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM ET

What Will Attendees Learn?

• How the seven areas are significant to current problems in cybersecurity.
• How these seven areas can contribute to future states in cybersecurity engineering and operations.
• How accelerating research in these seven areas can provide substantial benefit to the broad community of the Software Engineering Institute's partners in the Department of War, the intelligence community, the Department of Homeland Security, other government agencies, and industry.

Seven Topic Areas

• Analytic and Operational Tradecraft for Cybersecurity
• Securing AI-Based Systems and Workflows
• Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) Security
• Cybersecurity for Complex Integrated Systems
• Insider Threat and Human–Systems Interaction
• Secure Engineering and Mission Confidence for Critical Software-Reliant Systems
• Modeling and Simulation (M&S) in Support of Security

Who Should Attend?

• Research leaders in cybersecurity
• Operational leaders in government and industry
• Mission leaders

About the Speakers

Gregory J. Touhill is the director of the CERT Division of the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Software Engineering Institute. Previously, he served as the first United States government CISO, as deputy assistant secretary in the DHS Office of Cybersecurity and Communications, and president of a cybersecurity start-up. Touhill is a U.S. Air Force combat veteran, retiring with the rank of brigadier general after 30 years of service. As an operational commander and senior leader, he advanced to the position of J6 and CIO of USTRANSCOM. He received the Bronze Star medal and Master Cyberspace Operations and Master Space Operations wings.

William L. Scherlis is a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon and special advisor to the Software Engineering Institute, a DoD FFRDC at CMU. From 2019 to 2022 he served as director of DARPA's Information Innovation Office (I2O, now renamed IPTO), where he led program managers in the development of programs in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, secure software, and information operations. He was awarded the DARPA Superior Public Service Medal.