The National Security Agency (NSA) recently designated LSU as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations (CAE-CO), making LSU one of only 22 universities in the country that have received the recognition.
Computer science professor Golden Richard worked at a CAE-CO school before coming to LSU in 2017. He did most of the work to receive LSU’s designation in collaboration with Greg Trahan in the Office of Research and Economic Development.
According to Richard, the NSA has different designations in cybersecurity, and the designation LSU received in cyber operations is the most prestigious and difficult one to earn.
To receive the designation, LSU had to meet certain standards set by the NSA, including having certain classes taught within the program. For example, Richard said the university has to have a reverse engineering class as well as courses in computer viruses and cryptography, which sets LSU apart from other universities.
“A few of those classes are really the sticking point [because] most universities simply don't have someone that can or will teach some of those topics,” Richard said.
As part of President Tate’s Cybersecurity Initiatives, computer science professors Ibraham Baggili and Aisha Ali-Gombe were recruited to LSU’s faculty.
The cybersecurity program is a concentration within the computer science department at LSU. The program began in 2020 with around 19 students, but Richard says it has now grown to over one hundred students, and Baggili and Ali-Gombe will be “instrumental” in keeping up with the growing enrollment numbers.
The designation will also show on students’ transcripts, which can be notable when applying for jobs after graduation.
“[There’s] the knowledge that the curriculum and the program that you've gone through as a student is valuable by the agency that's probably doing the most important cybersecurity in the world,” Richard said.
Computer science senior Karley Waguespack chose to study cybersecurity after seeing the support she could receive within the program. She’s enjoyed the concentration so much that after she graduates in the spring, she plans to stay at LSU for graduate school.
“The program has been growing so much, I know that it's probably going to be one of the best places that I could possibly be at right now,” Waguespack said.
Waguespack has been able to witness the cybersecurity program grow over the past few years.
“Whenever I started out, we didn't have as many classes and resources, and I'm kind of seeing firsthand how the program is growing and evolving over time. Just this past year, we've gotten so many new cybersecurity faculty and classes,” Waguespack said.
She believes the NSA designation is attracting more faculty and students to LSU, which enables the university to receive more resources to improve the program. She expects there to also be more collaboration between LSU and corporations looking for cybersecurity graduates.
Waguespack is excited to see the changes the designation will bring, including the new cybersecurity classes that will be added next semester.
“Cybersecurity faculty are still hard to come by, a lot of schools don't really get to have these classes. So I feel really lucky that I can take classes like this…I'm really excited about the direction that [the program] is going in,” Waguespack said.
Baggili, one of the new computer science professors, currently teaches a research topics class in cybersecurity and forensics and will teach a digital forensics course in the spring. Before coming to LSU, he was part of the faculty at the CAE-CO designated Connecticut Institute of Technology at the University of New Haven.
Baggili came to LSU for a variety of reasons, including to work with the “world-class faculty” in the computer science department as well as President Tates’ scholarship-first initiative. He believes the new designation will have a positive impact on LSU’s cybersecurity program.
“The best way to describe it is that [LSU] is the SEC of cybersecurity. I joke around and say we put the SEC in cyberSEC,” Baggili said. “The students will now know that they are by far at the top program in Louisiana, since it’s the only designated program in the state.”
Baggili said that students will benefit from the new designation as they now have more research funding opportunities and access to elite internships.
“How amazing it is to have access to the opportunities through a program like this, at an affordable education. Other programs of this caliber are typically available at private universities, where tuition can cost upwards of $70 thousand a year,” he said.
Ali-Gombe, who also recently joined LSU’s faculty, currently teaches a class on operating systems and will teach a reverse engineering and malware course in the spring.
Ali-Gombe came to LSU from Towson University, a CAE-CO-certified school in Maryland. Previously she was a postdoctoral student at LSU in 2017 and maintained a position as a visiting research scientist, and has returned to LSU to be a part of the growing cybersecurity program.
“When this cybersecurity initiative started, I felt like this [was] really the time to be here…I think I can contribute something to this program because of the experience of having taught in a CAE-CO school,” Ali-Gombe said.
She said that to be designated, the program had to go through a long and rigorous process of submitting its curriculum, which is vetted by the NSA. While it was an intensive task, Ali-Gombe said she believes the designation could be a potential deciding factor for incoming freshmen.
“Instead of you going to [other universities], you should come to LSU, because they're providing this content of this curriculum, probably [for] even cheaper,” Ali-Gombe said.
She also said that faculty will now have access to research funds only available to designated schools, which could lead to purchasing better equipment and hiring more students to work in the research labs.
Ali-Gombe shares President Tate’s hopes for the future of the cybersecurity program. By preparing students to be experts in cybersecurity, she believes the university can fill jobs in the rapidly-growing industry.
“[President Tate] wants to see LSU as like the top cybersecurity school in the nation – I want the same thing. I want to be part of that, I want us to give our students the best, nothing less than that,” she said. “LSU is going to make a name in cybersecurity.”
Gloss