San Antonio … 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 Agency (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for five years through 2014.
"This designation is not a college designation, but a designation for the entire university," said Glenn 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 vulnerability 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
For more information about research and academic programs in information assurance and cyber security, please visit the following Web sites:
- UTSA's Department of Information Systems
- UTSA's Department of Computer Science
- UTSA's Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering
- UTSA's Institute for Cyber Security Labs
- UTSA's Center for Infrastructure Assurance & Security
The University of Texas at San Antonio is one of the fastest growing higher education institutions in Texas and the second largest of nine academic universities and six health institutions in the UT System. As a multicultural institution of access and excellence, UTSA aims to be a premier public research university providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
UTSA serves more than 28,400 students in 64 bachelor's, 47 master's and 21 doctoral degree programs in the colleges of Architecture, Business, Education and Human Development, Engineering, Honors, Liberal and Fine Arts, Public Policy, Sciences and Graduate School. Founded in 1969, UTSA is an intellectual and creative resource center and a socioeconomic development catalyst for Texas and beyond.