Education

Our culture of service, rigor of leadership-infused cybersecurity education, commitment to diversity complementary nature of programs, and excitement to collaborate, make our SMC consortium a natural conduit to graduate the next generation of cybersecurity leaders our nation critically needs.

Cybersecurity Minor

Female cadet at laptop Academic Catalogue Information

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. Demonstrate understanding of cybersecurity, ethics and resilience concepts as transdisciplinary, with an understanding of major technical, management, legal, regulatory, and compliance frameworks

2. Describe major components of primary cybersecurity and cyber resilience systems/components for the prevention, detection, response and resilience to cyber attacks

3. Describe ethical components of decision-making in cyber and cybersecurity practices and applications

4. Analyze cyber-enabled systems as pertaining to vulnerabilities, threats, risks and resilience

5. Analyze behaviors in cyberspace, and identify potential ethical conflicts and means for their resolution

6. Develop an artifact assimilating knowledge of technical, management and behavioral aspects in securing cyber-enabled systems

7. Demonstrate good written and oral technical communication skills


Leadership Integrated Competency Development (LCD)

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

  • Develop and apply technical and nontechnical cybersecurity knowledge, skills, and abilities relevant to cybersecurity with emphasis on DoD work roles.
  • Design, develop, implement, analyze, and maintain defensive and offensive cybersecurity strategies and solutions in cyber-physical-spaces.
  • Understand and apply cybersecurity knowledge, technical and nontechnical skills, relevant policies, and leadership theories and strategies in case studies of real-world scenarios. 

Selected VMI cadets who meet the eligibility requirements will undergo rigorous preparation to be certified as Cyber Captains. The CCI program includes the , professional certifications, cyber club activities, and IT and community service. Students will receive a generous DoD Cyber Captains stipend.

VMI offers a multi-disciplinary Cybersecurity minor (CySec), a National Security Minor, and cybersecurity required and elective courses in multiple departments. CyDef provides varied dimensions of education in core and advanced cybersecurity education.

CyDef plans to organize annual summer camps for high school students and teachers in cybersecurity. We will heavily recruit students from underrepresented groups in Rockbridge and surrounding rural counties, and may offer tailored programs to schools challenged by the digital divide.


Experiential and Immersive Learning (EIL)

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

  • Build and evolve cybersecurity teams to address cybersecurity challenges.
  • Monitor, analyze, and resolve simulated national-level cybersecurity challenges.
  • Describe and apply methods for leading and responding to national-level cybersecurity priorities.
  • Acquire cybersecurity professional skills through supervised workforce readiness experiences.

CyDef seeks to provide a new direction in cybersecurity undergraduate learning, in part, through an in-house design, development and utilization of a novel educational platform for hands-on projects at VMI and the SMC consortium. Our platform, termed CyberAIMS, comprises a data-driven, dynamically reconfigurable Application Intelligence Management System with an integral Cloud-managed Internet of Things (IoT) populating smart-built spaces.

VMI is well-positioned to serve in the nation’s vanguard in cybersecurity leadership. The annual event held at VMI, exposes cadets and student to the rigors of cybersecurity competition as well as to nationally renowned scholars, practitioners, and industry leaders. Cyber Fusion intends to include exercises in a National Security Simulation.

CyDef plans to develop a new data-driven workforce skill advancement and readiness program, combining the efforts of faculty with Career Services professionals at VMI for better tracking opportunities, potential career paths, and the internship experience.