Updates from the President

The 2017-2018 academic year is underway and our campuses, both physical and digital, are humming with activity. As is our tradition, incoming freshmen attend Sun Devil Welcome before classes begin, a special event aimed at building community, school spirit and energy for the learning ahead. We stream it online so no one misses the celebration.

It was thrilling to welcome more than 11,500 new freshmen to ASU (7,500 from Arizona) and encouraged them to confront challenging ideas, take ownership of their lives, and ask for help when needed. The influx of talent, diversity and creativity that is choosing our university as the place where they want to advance their dreams is inspiring. As I shared during a recent visit with an alumna and new ASU parent, we take the trust placed in our commitment to student success very seriously, and I look forward to sharing more about the growth and accomplishments of our new Sun Devils as they advance.

Among this year's new additions across ASU are the Student Pavilion on the Tempe campus, more than 140 new faculty members, SMART technology improvements to Sun Devil Stadium, and the long-awaited opening of Tooker House - a new, technology-enabled residence hall for freshman students in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. Designed specifically to meet the living and learning needs of the next generation of world-class engineers, Tooker House melds ASU's tradition of engineering excellence with leading-edge design to give students the highest quality learning experience possible.

Coinciding with its opening, the Amazon Alexa team generously donated 1,600 Echo Dots to Tooker House residents, facilitating instant access to in-room voice technology that is customized to provide ASU-related information. In addition, ASU engineering students also have the opportunity to participate in special courses on building and augmenting voice-user interfaces like the ASU-specific Alexa skill. This unique combination of state-of-the-art technology and related coursework make Tooker House the first voice-enabled residence hall of its kind in the nation.

This is a terrific example of how ASU is using technology to prepare students to become leaders in voice technology, a sector that is becoming more and more dominant in our society. Read on...

Last June, I was excited to announce that ASU was partnering with adidas to form the Global Sport Alliance, an innovative endeavor to better understand how sport can influence human success. As a follow up, I traveled to adidas headquarters in Portland last week to talk about ASU's model and objectives at a special employee event. I joined Mark King, president of adidas North America, to discuss what we hope to accomplish through our unique education and research collaboration.

We also announced a new joint pilot scholarship program that will help 100 adidas employees complete their higher education degrees through ASU online. This is an meaningful step in continuing our commitment to enhancing educational excellence and access, and we look forward to forging additional distinctive public-private partnerships in the future in fulfillment of our university charter.

As concerns over hacking and data breaches intensify, the Center for Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics in ASU's Global Security Initiative is evolving education, research, and entrepreneurial efforts to address the safety of digital technology. Building on this work, GSI recently hosted its first Congressional Conference on Cybersecurity , a day-long series of panels moderated by and featuring congressional leaders, and academic, military, and industry experts focused on what is needed to the retain the integrity of our critical electronic data networks. U.S. Senator John McCain and U.S. Congress members Andy Biggs, Trent Franks, Ruben Gallego, Tom O'Halleran, and Kyrsten Sinema joined specialists like Major General John Baker of NETCOM, retired Brigadier General and Cyber Director of Raytheon Linda Medler, and PayPal Global Security Senior Director Brian Johnson to discuss cybersecurity education, workforce preparation, infrastructure, and tech transfer.

In welcoming conference guests, my remarks emphasized the very significant threat to our economy and military posed by cyberattacks, and the serious need for a transdisciplinary approach to cybersecurity issues. Computer Science alone cannot develop solutions to these challenges, but must also incorporate critical thinking that includes psychology, ethics, policy, business, among other areas. Only by working together can we hope to implement an effective defense, and evolve the manpower and infrastructure necessary to combat the ever-changing cybersecurity landscape.