LSU President William F. Tate IV announced last month plans to integrate and improve LSU’s cybersecurity and military science programs as part of his scholarship first initiative.
Golden Richard, director of the LSU Applied Cybersecurity Lab, and Greg Trahan, LSU’s director of economic development, explained what those plans will look like in the future and how they will affect the university.
Partnerships
Richard said that some local and federal agencies are considering putting labs on LSU’s campus. This would allow students to work directly with federal and local law enforcement.
Trahan said that the cybersecurity department is currently partnered with the Louisiana State Police and private defense contractor Radiance Technologies, among others. Part of Tate’s plan includes expanding current partnerships as well as seeking new ones.
“At a high level, we’ve been in conversations with the Secret Service around digital forensics,” Trahan said.
Trahan couldn’t reveal more details because the partnership was not finalized, but that the Secret Service would be involved with talent development at the university.
Radiance Technologies already has a stable partnership with LSU, Trahan said. The Huntsville, Alabama-based defense contractor, has hired several LSU graduate students and previously sponsored several Ph.D. students.
Trahan said that LSU expects to finalize partnerships with the National Guard and the National Security Agency this year.
Elevating ROTC
Trahan said one of the most important parts of Tate’s announcement is the elevation of ROTC.
Trahan said that Tate’s plan aims to elevate ROTC in a way that honors LSU’s military history as the Ole War Skule, but also looks to the future.
The elevation of ROTC is planned to be accomplished by improving recruiting and infrastructure, creating a leadership certificate program and partnering with state and private agencies for talent development.
Moving of ROTC
Eventually, ROTC, which is currently located in the Military Science Building, will be moved into the Louisiana Emerging Technology Center. Trahan could not comment on when the move will take place.
The Louisiana Emerging Technology Center will be the foundation of a new cyber-military corridor.
Mechanical engineering junior Colin Raby, who was formerly involved in Air Force ROTC, said the current Military Science Building was “in a sorry state of disrepair.”
Business junior and previous member of Air Force ROTC Austin Firmin also commented on the need for new ROTC facilities.
“[Air Force ROTC] recently had a Vietnam veteran alumnus come back and visit, and he was like ‘Dang, this building was old when I was here back in the ’70s,’” Firmin said.
New Cyber Military Corridor
To integrate the cybersecurity and military programs, Tate’s plan designates a new Cyber Military Corridor on campus. The Louisiana Emerging Technology Center will act as the cornerstone for LSU’s new hub for cybersecurity and defense.
“That’s how you’re going to start generating really great ideas and hopefully elevating a lot of that talent,” Trahan said.
FIREStarter
Last semester, LSU announced a new program called FIREStarter, which partners with the Louisiana State Police to provide students with “an immersive cyber teaching experience that uses Louisiana data and experts as well as real-world, real-time attacks to train a new generation of cyber talent” according to the LSU cybersecurity website.
The lab has since been built, and students are taking class in it. Someone with Louisiana State Police teaches a class in the FIREStarter lab using its resources, Richard said.
Richard also mentioned a proposal for a second FIREStarter lab.
“We are asking for more funding from the state to essentially do something that will be like FIREStarter II,” Richard said. “It’ll be another lab that enhances the capabilities of that stuff and lets people learn about forensics and industrial control systems; so basically stuff you’d see on CSI.”
Richard says the industrial control system aspect is very exciting because there is a great oil, gas and chemical industry in Louisiana.
Cybersecurity Scholarships
Part of Tate’s plan to improve the cybersecurity program is to hire 10 new cybersecurity faculty members. Richard says they have identified two candidates they would like to have in place by the fall and are looking into the process of bringing these candidates in for interviews.
Richard said he expects more scholarships will be offered in the future than what is currently offered as the Office of Research solidifies partnerships with industrial agencies.
“The Office of Research in talking to these industrial and federal partners, they’re interested in making sure that there are internship opportunities for students and potentially scholarships,” Richard said.
Richard also said they are looking to grow the Scholarship for Service program.
Cybersecurity Student Response
Richard said that student interest in cybersecurity has been growing.
“When we started the cybersecurity concentration, we immediately had roughly 20 students, and now it’s way over 100 and we don’t even have the full numbers for this year,” Richard said. “It’s exploding.”
Another part of Tate’s plan is to implement a cyber boot camp for incoming computer science freshmen.
According to Anas Mahmoud, an associate professor of computer science, the boot camp will be more like a summer camp to introduce incoming freshmen to cybersecurity early on.
Mahmoud said the program will include a variety of basic exercises that don’t require a lot of coding experience or knowledge in math that introduce topics like cryptography, security, important threats facing the nation and how to defend against these threats, ethical issues and privacy. Students will also be introduced to tools that will help them in their computer science careers.
The summer camp should bring more awareness to students about cybersecurity scholarships and opportunities from the university, Mahmoud said.
Mahmoud also said he hopes the summer camp will help decrease the computer science drop-out rate.
“Most of the time, dropping out from computer science is because people come here, they don’t know what the expectations are and then they get lost and they feel like they have no friends and if they could switch majors they might have a better social life,” Mahmoud said. “So I’m hoping this camp will also target these problems.
