The Institute for Computing and Cybersystems begins the 2026-27 academic year with a look back on a decade of success and a vision for continuing to move forward as a new executive director takes the helm.
Dr. Timothy Havens has led the Institute of Computing and Cybersystems for eight years alongside his directorship of the Great Lakes Research Center. The 2026 Michigan Tech Research Award winner and William and Gloria Jackson Professor of Computer Science is an electrical engineering alumnus who returned to Tech in 2012 as an assistant professor in the electrical and computer engineering department.
During his tenure at ICC, the Institute has grown—something Haven’s envisioned from the beginning. When he took the helm in 2018, he foresaw the ICC becoming a “10 million dollar institute.”
His vision was well-founded. From 2018 to 2025, the institute grew from 25 members to 150, spanning nearly every academic department across campus, and developed nine specialized research centers to form interdisciplinary groups around common research goals. In fiscal year 2025 alone, the ICC secured $8.5 million in research funding, getting ever closer to that $10 million benchmark.
The institute’s remarkable trajectory stems from the organizational culture Havens cultivated. Guided by the principle that serving member faculty is a paramount priority, he maintained that the ICC must continually earn the loyalty of its researchers, ensuring the institute remains a preferred partner for faculty time and again.
The institute has also reinvested in the Michigan Tech community under Tim’s leadership. Since 2022, the ICC has awarded nearly $400,000 to MTU faculty and students for startup research projects, faculty fellowships, travel grants to conferences, publication costs, and more. The funding does not include the three full-time ICC staff who support research development.
As we head into the Fall 2026 semester, Havens steps away as ICC’s executive director having established a near-decade run of explosive growth and laying the groundwork for a sustainable and successful future.
The ICC welcomed Dr. Anwar Walid as our new executive director on Aug. 17.
Walid has an extensive background in academic and industrial research. A recognized leader in cyber-physical systems, AI, and cybersecurity, he is a fellow of ACM, IEEE, and AAIA, earning the ACM SIGCOMM Networking Systems Award for his role in the creation of Multipath TCP (MPTCP). He has secured research funding from DARPA and NSF, and holds 20 patents in networking, computing, and cybersecurity. On the industry side, Dr. Walid was director of Network Intelligence and Distributed Systems Research at Bell Labs.
Walid aims to expand the role ICC plays at MTU as an integration and enablement layer—a framework designed to support research and learning across campus. This integration will expand the borders of the ICC, enabling a collaborative and connective environment for researchers to pursue funding and impacts that they couldn’t achieve alone.
“The challenges facing society today, from AI and cybersecurity to autonomous systems and scientific computing, demand bold, collaborative leadership. Dr. Anwar Walid has demonstrated that kind of leadership throughout his career,” said Havens. “His arrival marks another milestone not only for the ICC, but for all of Michigan Tech’s research community, and I look forward to working closely with him to build new partnerships and accelerate discoveries that make a lasting impact, here and beyond.”
To learn more about Walid, the expertise he brings to his new role, and his plans for ICC, read the interview on the College of Computing Newsblog.