History of the INI
2009
Staff begin plans to mark the 20th anniversary of the INI.
The INI hosts regional alumni events in Washington, DC, Silicon Valley and Seattle during Spring Semester.
Carnegie Mellon is re-designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education and designated for the first time as a Center for Academic Excellence in Research.
The INI website and CarnegieCyberAcademy.com win 2009 Silver Communicator Awards.
April: The INI announces a computer forensics and incident response track option for Pittsburgh MSIN and Pittsburgh MSISTM students, and an Integrated Master's option for ECE and CS undergraduates at Carnegie Mellon.
May 14-17: The INI hosts the first-ever global diploma ceremony in Pittsburgh that includes graduates from our programs in Athens, Kobe, Aveiro and Lisbon.
June 5: A team of INI students in the Kobe MSIT-IS program win the incident-handling contest at Shirahama Cyber Crime Symposium.
July 13-24: CyLab and the INI hold the 7th offering of the Information Assurance Capacity Building Program.
2008
Spring: Students along with staff advisors organize GOINI (Graduate Organization@INI), a student-run organization to nurture leadership and social networking skills among students.
May: Professor Nicolas Christin is promoted to Associate Director of the INI. In July he moves to Pittsburgh from Kobe where he had been positioned since 2005 as an INI faculty member and faculty advisor at CyLab Japan.
June: The INI celebrates the 5th anniversary of its Athens Master of Science in Information Networking program (Athens MSIN). An alumni reception was held at the Arion Resort and Spa in Athens, Greece, on June 12, 2008, the day after the Athens MSIN graduation ceremony.
August: The INI hosts the first global orientation, Destination 2008, and convenes graduate students from all six global locations. International students who accepted the invitation to attend participated in the two-day orientation with their Pittsburgh classmates and attended classes with them for a week.
December: The first class graduates from the programs in Portugal, the Aveiro MSIN and Lisbon MSIT-IS.
December: The first EWF fellow, Amy Rambhia, graduates and joins Microsoft as a Project Manager in the Networking Group.
2007
To continue the globalization strategy, the INI develops two graduate degree programs in Portugal to begin Fall 2007.
The INI rennovates the lower level of the INI building to add another Distributed Education Center (DEC). The space includes distributed education equipment, lab space, a classroom and conference room as well as reception area, kitchen and restrooms.
March: The INI graduates its first class of students from the Kobe MSIT-IS program.
October: The INI and CyLab celebrate the official launch of Carnegie Cadets: The MySecureCyberspace Game. Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett attends the kickoff event at a local elementary school.
December: The INI is excited to announce the launch of new professional graduate degree programs in information technology (INI Pittsburgh-Silicon Valley Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) programs)that will give students the experience of two locations, the rich academic setting at Carnegie Mellon's main campus in Pittsburgh and the unique professional exposure at Carnegie Mellon's Silicon Valley campus.
2006
April: The INI and Carnegie Mellon CyLab partner with Alta Associates to create scholarships for women.
June: The INI graduates its third class of students from the Athens MSIN program.
The INI reports 100 percent career placement rate for 2006 graduates.
2005
April: The INI celebrates 15 years of achievement and growth by students, faculty and the administration.
April: Through a grant from the National Science Foundation, the INI and CyLab launch www.MySecureCyberspace.com, which includes a prototype of the online MySecureCyberspace game.
The M.S. in Information Technology - Information Security (MSIT-IS) program is created as an INI degree program to be offered in Kobe, Japan at Carnegie Mellon CyLab Japan.
2004
April: The INI graduates its first Athens MSIN class of 19 students in Athens, Greece. This is the first Carnegie Mellon graduation ceremony on foreign soil.
July: Dena Haritos Tsamitis becomes director of the INI when Pradeep K. Khosla is appointed dean of the College of Engineering (CIT).
The INI becomes the educational partner of Carnegie Mellon's newly created CyLab Research Initiative and begins development of MySecureCyberspace®.
2003
The INI creates the M.S. in Information Security Technology & Management (MSISTM) program in response to growing concerns in the U.S. about cybersecurity.
2002
July: The INI moves back to 4616 Henry Street, occupying two floors. The building is made wireless; students, working in shared offices and clusters, are provided with Dell computers.
August: The INI, in collaboration with Athens Information Technology (AIT), offers the MSIN degree in Athens, Greece. The program becomes Carnegie Mellon's first international degree program. Core courses are taught via real-time video teleconferencing.
Dena Haritos Tsamitis, who was involved in the planning and design of the Athens MSIN program, is hired as Associate Director of the INI.
2001
The first INI students are awarded the NSF Scholarships for Service.
2000
Wireless Andrew Phase II is completed.
Pradeep K. Khosla becomes the fifth director of the INI. The INI, previously a university initiative, becomes a part of the College of Engineering (CIT).
October: The INI holds its first reunion of 10 years.
1999
The INI conducts research into future markets for packet switched data networks for Bell Atlantic Mobile Systems.
The INI conducts research for ABB, Zurich to develop wireless infrastructure for the power industry.
1998
The INI receives an equipment grant from Lucent for Wireless Andrew Phase II, the 802.11 system. Implementation is begun.
1997
April: The INI signs a contract with Caterpillar, the biggest INI contract to date. The contract involves significant work in mobile communications and includes INI students and INI alumni doing Ph.D.s in CS and ECE.
July: In partnership with CMU Computing Services, the INI completes and makes operational campus-wide Wireless Andrew Phase I, the 900 MHz system. The system is the first campus-wide wireless network in the world.
1994
The Bellcore contract ends. INI becomes an independent program with a focus on student admissions and research.
The INI begins the Netbill Electronic Commerce Research program.
1993
The INI is awarded a $500K government grant to start the Wireless Research Initiative that develops into Wireless Andrew. The initiative develops a campus-wide research structure and gains visibility for the INI.
1992
January: The INI moves to Hamburg Hall on the lower campus. Students work in open clusters equipped with DEC Alpha workstations.
Spring: The Carnegie Mellon Curriculum Review Committee redesigns the MSIN program to introduce more flexibility.
1990
August: The second MSIN class enters the INI graduate program. The INI moves off campus to a floor of 4616 Henry Street. The new offices are equipped with Steve Job's NeXT workstations.
October: The first MSIN class graduates.
1989
April - August: The Information Networking Institute is founded by Marvin Sirbu. Alex Hills becomes the first director. A contract is signed with Bellcore calling for a master's-level program in information networking.
August: The first MSIN class is housed in the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). Students use Vax 2100 personal workstations with .25 MIPs processor, 16 MB RAM running Digital Ultrix.
October: The first ATI (Bellcore executive education program) class enters the INI.
1988
July: Bellcore sends an RFP out to a dozen universities.