The Missouri University of Science and Technology's Center for Critical Infrastructure Protection (CCIP) is a multi-disciplinary center dedicated to improving the security, reliability, and survivability of the infrastructures that play a vital role in the effective functioning of our nation. This proposal focuses on the critical hardware/software integrated systems that make up the nation's Critical Infrastructures. These systems are vulnerable to both natural disasters, e.g., earthquakes and floods, and man-made hazards, including cyber hazards, either accidental or malicious. The Center will bring together faculty from all disciplines within the Missouri University of Science and Technology to address this urgent national priority, building on the internationally recognized expertise that is housed within its walls.

 Our nation is increasingly dependent on systems, such as the electric power grid, oil and gas distribution and pipelines, transportation systems, telecommunications systems, and information systems.  These systems are very complex in their own right and, to complicate matters, they are inter-dependent systems of systems, or Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS).  Due to their critical nature, it is imperative that these systems continue to operate even in the event of natural disaster, operator error, or malicious attack.  Estimates of the cost of downtime by industry are:

Financial	$4.5M/hour     ($108M/day)
Energy	$2.8M/hour     ($67M/day)
Telecommunications	$2.0M/hour     ($48M/day)
Manufacturing	$1.6M/hour     ($38M/day)

In order to assure the continued functioning of these systems, their complexity requires expertise in all aspects of the hazard scenario.  This, therefore, includes not only protecting against physical damage but also the integrated reliability and security of such large-scale systems, where damage at one point can have drastic consequences over a much broader target area, leading to cascading failures.  Further, the diversity of these systems requires expertise in many different domain areas including "hard" engineering such as civil engineering, electrical and computer engineering, and petroleum engineering, as well as computer science, software engineering and cybersecurity.  Lastly, the fact that these are typically interconnected systems requires that we have expertise in networking and distributed computing.  We are inviting experts within the Missouri S&T community to form a unique team with the core areas of excellence in energy (electric/oil/gas), rock mechanics, structures and blasting, transportation, and cyber-security.