Louisiana Tech University announced Tuesday that it has received a $2.85 million grant from The U.S. Air Force's Office of Scientific Research to establish the Cyberspace Research Laboratory at Enterprise Campus, a research park designed to commercialize the school's intellectual property.

The grant is expected to enhance work faculty already working with the Air Force in the field of cybersecurity.

The new lab will support advanced research and development functions such as virtualization, visualization, high performance computing, wireless sensor networks and micro unmanned aerial vehicles. The technology will allow researchers to simulate security breaches and develop cures for such attacks.

The lab will be housed at Tech Pointe, the first multi-tenant facility to be constructed at Enterprise Campus.

The ground breaking on Tech Pointe is scheduled for this fall.

Tech said in a release that it expects the lab to attract research and development partners, new faculty, graduate students and new high-tech companies to Enterprise Campus.

"We are grateful for the support of Congressman Rodney Alexander, Senator Mary Landrieu and former Congressman Jim McCrery," Tech President Dan Reneau said in a prepared statement.

"Their vision and advocacy were essential to our receiving this funding."

Les Guice, vice president for research and development at Tech, said the new lab will put Tech in prime position to meet future government research needs.

"As evidenced by recent attacks on government computers, cyber threats are more and more prolific, demonstrating a critical need for further R&D," he said.

"We intend to play a major role in addressing these needs."