Cal State San Bernardino’s Cybersecurity Center will host the annual Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) in Cybersecurity Symposium this year to be held virtually Nov. 19-20.

The CAE in Cybersecurity Symposium will focus on research and cybersecurity education from the CAE in the cybersecurity community. The symposium also serves as a platform for fostering intercampus relationships and promotes networking and collaboration.

“This is the fifth year of this annual event and it is always an amazing experience to gather hundreds of cybersecurity faculty with the common purpose of building a strong cybersecurity workforce for the nation,” said Tony Coulson, executive director of the CSUSB Cybersecurity Center and lead for the newly designated Centers of Academic Excellence (CAE) National Center for Cybersecurity Education.

This two-day symposium encompasses all 330+ existing Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD), Centers of Academic Excellence in Research (CAE-R), and Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations (CAE-CO), as well as government representatives and invitees.

The first day, Nov. 19, will feature updates that include the National Security Agency-Academic Partnership; the CAE Community Progress and Regional Hubs; CAE Project Management Office; and partnership updates on the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE), the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The second day, Nov. 20, will feature a Community of Practice panel on the Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations (CAE-CO), Centers of Academic Excellence in Research (CAE-R) and Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD) followed by presentations, mini-workshops, panel presentations and “fast pitch” research.

Speakers from the NSA, NSF, FBI, and NICE, among others, will be featured during the symposium. Among these speakers are community leaders such as Lynne Clark, deputy chief of the Center for Education, Innovation and Outreach, National Cryptologic School, National Security Agency and Diane M. Janosek, commandant and training director National Cryptologic School, National Security Agency.

The symposium is supported in partnership with the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education and the National Security Agency.

Under Coulson’s leadership, the CSUSB Cybersecurity Center was recently named the Community National Center for Cybersecurity Education by the NSA, which selected the center for a $10.5 million grant and the university to be a leader of the agency’s core workforce development initiative, the CAE in Cybersecurity Community.

In its designation as a national center, the CSUSB Cybersecurity Center will establish and manage three Centers of Academic Excellence-C Communities of Practice, coordinate cutting-edge research, establish and support five regional hubs around the country, and support cybersecurity education nationally.

The center, from 2010-2020, has brought in over $28 million worth of grant sponsored programs from entities that include NICE, the NSA, DoD, the National Cybersecurity Training and Education (NCyTE) Center, and the NSF. Through the grant sponsored activities of the center, students can compete for scholarships, participate in national conferences, and research emerging cybersecurity issues. 

The CAE in Cybersecurity Community provides for the fruitful exchange of relevant information, ideas and events by CAE Institutions for CAE Institutions through weekly newsletters, web conferencing platforms and by hosting the annual symposium for existing CAEs and applicants.

In 1999, the NSA launched the Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education (CAE-IAE) program. Under this program, an institution could receive the CAE-IAE designation if it passed rigorous curriculum and program requirements. By May 1999, seven schools became designated as a CAE, and soon, many more institutions joined the ranks of CAE-designated institutions. While the CAE-IAE program initially formed to address the shortage of intelligence community professionals, the program later expanded to address the lack of qualified cybersecurity professionals in the workforce. The newly named CAE programs in Cyber Defense, Research and Operations now include over 330 academic institutions and over 100,000 active students.

For more information about the symposium, email info@caecommunity.org or visit the CAE Community website.