Cybernetic Research Environment & Threat Evaluation (CREATE) Range

The CREATE Range is open for business! This is a sponsor, lease, partner-to-use platform.

Managed by the VT Senior Military College Cyber Institute Team, the Cybernetic Research Environment and Threat Evaluation (CREATE) Range is a large-scale, hardware-resident, and remotely extensible environment designed to host internal, external, and joint cyber, AI, systems, and data-intensive research along with experiential exercises and competitions, in parallel via the CREATE and CREATEX sub-environments.

Utilizing vSphere's virtualization platform, it provides scalable and customizable components to support small, medium, or large network topologies and datasets. Features include realistic network traffic generation through deployment of synthetic users, ability to artificially incorporate network latency, and providing access to commonly deployed operating systems and virtual devices to build custom environments. Kubernetes clusters and expansive storage infrastructure enable not only hosting and archive of large datasets but experimentation with emerging AI/ML models. Additional capabilities include virtual machine analytics and monitoring, scenario and virtual machine snapshots, and the ability to capture network traffic for analysis. Recent or ongoing projects include: Agentic Network Reconnaissance, Virtual Security Operations Center, Interactive-Generative AI Agents, Offensive Security Sandbox, CyberBrawl, and SummitCTF.  

Leverage CREATE if you want to conduct sponsored, joint, or new research that is not controlled or sensitive. The primary audiences for CREATE are: Research Faculty, Student Researchers, Government Partners, and Industry Partners.

Leverage CREATEX if you want to build, host, or test targeted resources or environments for students, training, exercises, and competitions in cyber and data sciences. The primary audiences for CREATEX are: Students, Clubs, Educators, and Training Organizations/Departments that want to customize or build their own environments. If you are an educator or student you should also look at the Virginia Cyber Range for more expansive learning resources.

• VMware vSphere & Kubermetes Infrastructure 
• Nividia H100 80GB GPUs
• Xilinx VCK5000 & ALVEO U200 FPGAs 
• 50TB SAN & 65TB NAS & 112TB SSD Tiered Storage 
• 25Gbit & 100Gbit Infrastructure Network

Email the VT SMCCI CREATE Team at create-info@vt.edu. If applicable, please specify in the subject line which, CREATE or CREATEX, you are interested in.