Broad Engagement in Research and Education

The “Security & Defense Systems Initiative” (SDSI) is engaged across the broad spectrum of ASU’s research, education, and public service mission.

Our research programs are creating opportunities for students at the undergraduate, Masters, and doctoral levels, as well as our postdoctoral researchers, to become directly involved in advancing the state-of-the-art in various security and defense relevant areas. The students and postdoctoral researchers in SDSI work in close coordination with our faculty and research scholars. In so doing, they help to advance the goals of research programs they are involved in, while at the same time learning how to conduct research and how to transition the results of their research into practical use. SDSI thereby contributes not only to ASU’s research mission, but also to its goal of developing future scientists, engineers, and others who will enter the workforce to support the nation’s industrial capacity in security and defense related fields.

SDSI research efforts contribute to ASU’s educational and public service missions in many other ways as well. For example, some of our research projects lead to new ideas for student project courses and independent study efforts conducted under the guidance of an advisor. Other research efforts serve to enhance the content of courses being taught at ASU, helping to broaden and deepen the curriculum that prepares ASU students to enter the workforce and the world. Still others may spawn entirely new courses in emerging areas that further strengthen the breadth of the curriculum that ASU can offer to its students.

Our researchers also engage in many types of public services roles, from serving on advisory bodies that help guide our nation’s efforts in addressing the security and defense challenges we face, to engagement with students and the broader public to build greater understanding of these challenges and the many ways that they can potentially be met.

SDSI Fellowship Program

As part of its broad engagement across all of ASU, the Security & Defense Systems Initiative (SDSI) awards a number of fellowships each year to students throughout the university. These SDSI Fellowships are designed to increase awareness of the wide range of fields involved in developing effective solutions for the national and global security and defense challenges that our society faces. Fellowship recipients are engaged in security and defense relevant research under the guidance of a faculty advisor during the course of the fellowship term.

Recent SDSI Fellows at ASU are: