The U.S. Department of Defense extended its secure software system contract with Carnegie Mellon University researchers for the the next five years, officials announced Tuesday.
“[The contract] endorses the fact that over the last 30-plus years, we have made some major contributions and major impact for the Department of Defense in the area of software engineering and cybersecurity,” said Robert Behler, deputy director and chief operation officer of CMU’s Software Engineering Institute.
Funding is capped at $1.73 billion for services rendered, according to the contract. The government retains the option of extending the deal in 2020 for another five years.
Behler said the contract shows a huge vote of confidence for CMU's Software Engineering Institute and the city at large.
The institute drives initiatives in aerospace, transportation, banking and finance, energy, robotics and industrial automation by analyzing systems to find cost-effective solutions that can be implemented by the federal government and its contractors.
“Today, more than ever, we live in a world that’s software defined,” Behler said. “The challenges in software engineering are just getting very, very tremendous, and this contract shows that we have a lot of work to be done in the future.”
The 650-employee Software Engineering Institute was established at CMU in 1984.
