The National Security Agency has designated Auburn University and three other schools as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations. The others are Carnegie Mellon University; Mississippi State University; and the Air Force Institute of Technology.
Auburn officials say the program, which now has a total of eight schools, is designed to cultivate more cyber professionals in an ever-changing global environment.
An outgrowth of the President's National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, the program identifies institutions that have a deeply technical, interdisciplinary curriculum centered on fields such as computer science and electrical engineering. The NSA works with schools to improve education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The program also offers some participants opportunities to apply their learning or enhance their teaching in summer seminars at NSA.