Federal Security Agencies Name UTSA a National Center of Academic Excellence in Research
Want to learn about information assurance and security? You might want to consider The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). The university has received the elite National Center of Academic Excellence in Research (CAE-R) designation from the National Security Administration (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security for five years through 2014.
“This designation is not a college designation, but a designation for the entire university,” said Glen Dietrich, chair of the Information Assurance Department in UTSA’s College of Business. “It takes into account faculty, programs, research and funding from the College of Business, the College of Engineering, the College of Sciences and our Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security.”
The CAE and CAE-R programs are jointly sponsored by the NSA and DHS to reduce vulernabipity in the U.S. information infrastructure by promoting higher education and research in information assurance and by supporting a growing number of professionals with information assurance expertise. Specifically, the CAE-R program in information assurance aims to increase the understanding of robust technologies, policies and practices that will enable the U.S. to effectively prevent or respond to a catastrophic cyber event.
UTSA, an emerging research institution with a strong focus in security, first applied for CAE designation in 2001. It received that designation in 2002, making it the only CAE-designated university in Texas. Since then, six other universities and colleges in Texas have joined suit, earning their CAE designations, and one other, UT Dallas, has received the prestigious CAE-R designation.
Considerations for the CAE-R designation include:
- a university’s research, faculty and academic programs in information assurance and security
- its Carnegie Foundation classification
- its peer-reviewed publishing rate in security
- the overall number of graduate students it produces in security
- its level of funding for security programs
(by: Christi Fish)
