Terry Benzel and Goran Scuric  – DETER PI and DETER Partner Manager –  traveled to Singapore in early November to work with International DETER Partners at the Singapore National Cyber Lab (NCL) being developed by the National University of Singapore (NUS), under sponsorship of the Singapore National Research Foundation (NRF). The NCL is based on the DETERLab cyber security testbed.

I had the opportunity to participate in the Wall Street Journal CIO Network Conference. Leading technology and information executives convened for this third annual meeting in San Diego, California on February 2-3, 2015. These leading CIOs and CTOs came together to discuss and debate key action items to spur better decision-making, greater technology, and innovation in corporations. I was invited to participate as a subject matter expert in the area of cybersecurity and was assigned to the breakout session on "The National Agenda". 

I find that working with CIOs and industry leaders provides a valuable perspective on hard problems and helps ground our research. I had some very interesting and informative discussions with CIOs from organizations ranging from a global consulting company to technologists from cybersecurity start-up companies.

Keynote speakers included:

• J. Craig Venter, Ph.D.
  Co-founder, Executive Chairman and CEO
  Human Longevity, Inc.

• John T. Chambers
  Chairman and CEO
  Cisco

• Maarten Sierhuis, Ph.D.
  Director, Nissan Research Center Silicon Valley
  Nissan North America

• Howard A. Schmidt, Ph.D.
  Co-Founder, Ridge-Schmidt Cyber, LLC
  Cybersecurity Coordinator and Special Assistant to President Obama (2009-2012)
  Cybersecurity Advisor to President Bush (2001-2003)