MSU, Auburn chosen for cyber disciplines

Mississippi State and Auburn (Ala.) universities were among four new educational institutions selected for the 2013-14 school year to join a National Security Agency academic excellence program in cyber operations. The program is designed to cultivate American cyber professionals in a technical, inter-disciplinary that is grounded in computer science and engineering disciplines with extensive opportunities for hands-on labs and exercises. The National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations designation now has eight total schools participating in research and information assurance education - jointly overseen by NSA and the Department of Homeland Security. The other schools chosen this year include the Air Force Institute of Technology in Ohio; and Carnegie Mellon University of Pennsylvania. School participants, both student and faculty, do not engage in real-life government intelligence activities. Designations are for five year. Auburn’s senior counsel for national security programs says the CAE-Cyber project has merit and that the east-central Alabama university is devoting “significant resources and interdisciplinary rigor” to expand the new initiatives and collaborations across the nation. Source: National Security Agency, Sept. 4, 2013.