<< BackCyber Systems Major Now Offered at CGA
For the first time in more than 20 years, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy
will add a new academic program. Beginning with the Class of 2022, the
Academy will offer an academic major in Cyber Systems that will allow a generation of young leaders to better meet the emerging operational and support needs of the Service.
The U.S. Coast Guard has identified cyberspace as an operating domain in its Cyber Strategy plan, specifically pointing to defending cyberspace, enabling operations and protecting infrastructure as strategic priorities critical to overall mission success.
“The world of cyber is inherently multidisciplinary,” said Dr. Kurt Colella, Dean of Academics at the Academy. “It incorporates operating systems, policy, law, ethics, information assurance, network defense, big data, software design, cryptography and intelligence, including geospatial systems. All of these fields represent key areas that cadets will explore during their four years at the Academy.”
In the fall of 2018, the Academy will open a new 2,000 sq. foot cyber lab that will house dedicated servers, a working laboratory and a uniquely designed classroom with $1.5M in funding from the USCGA Alumni Association. Its completion will grow the Academy’s capability to educate and train cadets in cybersecurity, cyber safety, and other engineering topics so that future officers can lead effectively amidst the emerging data-centric challenges facing the Coast Guard today and in the future.
These spaces will be used to teach classes and labs in multidisciplinary Cybersecurity topics and provide the room necessary for faculty and cadets to conduct research to develop expert guidance to the Coast Guard and maritime transportation constituents. Upon completion, the Academy will have the space needed to offer the curriculum that is currently missing to meet the requirements for designation as a DHS/NSA Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education. In addition, a variety of cyber-related summer internships will be made available to interested and qualified cadets.
The Academy also has a Cyber Team, which operates as a club sport team that participates in a variety of organized competitions such as the Cyber Defense Exercise, a nationwide cyber defense competition between the federal service academies conducted by the National Security Agency. The Academy Cyber Team is open to cadets with an interest in developing high-level defensive and offensive cyber skills, and practices during weekday sports periods and receives required sports credit for participation.
“The new Cyber Systems major will join our other programs in shaping the development of the Coast Guard’s future leaders who must operate and excel in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) environment,” said Academy Superintendent Rear Admiral James E. Rendón.
The U.S. Coast Guard Academy continues to be recognized as one of the best institutions for undergraduate education in the nation, offering a higher education experience that emphasizes leadership, physical fitness and professional development.