David Relyea is smart (Bachelor of Science from Caltech and a doctorate in physics from Princeton), and that’s a good thing for the security of our electronic devices. As director of data science at BlackBerry, he’s part of a team at the Irvine-based company that provides organizations with software that uses artificial intelligence to stop cybersecurity threats. This software is now used by all G7 nations, all leading commercial banks and nine of the top 10 automotive manufacturers. We asked him three questions:

What’s the future of cybersecurity?

Today’s cybersecurity threats are vast and incredibly smart, many employing artificial intelligence themselves in a weaponized form. When it comes to preventing these, AI will likely become the heart of most solutions to thwart rapid and new cyberattacks. By leveraging AI, automated and predictive threat detection will be able to spot the signs of a threat before it infiltrates systems and causes significant damage.

Why choose Irvine Spectrum for your corporate offices?

Irvine is a renowned technology hub with a deep talent pool and easy access to many of our customers and clients. It offers many of the same advantages as Silicon Valley – a confluence of people, universities and companies. Also, there are so many benefits to living in Orange County, where the weather, people and food are all amazing. It definitely helps us secure and retain extremely capable talent.

What are your tips for students seeking a career in cybersecurity?

There’s a huge and underserved market for people capable of writing research AI code. College graduates in computer science with an internship or two under their belts can find themselves on a very lucrative career path as machine-learning engineers. In terms of cybersecurity, we find that professionals with strong backgrounds in AI and ML are in high demand.