BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) —In an effort to position LSU as a leading cyber and defense institution, the school has joined forces with federal and state law enforcement, private, and military partners to impact the workforce for tomorrow.
“Imagine a corridor related to cyber, military, ROTC expanded in this area and we are the absolute hub of cyber and ROTC development for the United States of America,” said LSU President Dr. William F. Tate. “There’s no sector in corporate America that is not touched by cyber and in need of cyber soldiers to defend, really to defend our way of life through business enterprise.”
Governor John Bel Edwards says these new opportunities will have the full support of the state legislature. By 2030 he wants 60% of adults in Louisiana to have a high-value credential or degree, falling in line with President Tate’s Scholarship First Agenda for LSU.
“Today there are 500,000 jobs available in cybersecurity that cannot be filled because we don’t have the educated, the trained individuals,” said Edwards. “Having a strong cybersecurity workforce is one of the things that is absolutely key for our country going forward.”
The investment into these studies comes at a time when the threat of a cyberattack on U.S. national security is at an all-time high.
“We don’t even know the nature of the threats at scale,” Edwards.
It is the hope that this new initiative will produce a higher number of technical graduates.
“I want you to look around you and imagine what this could be in the next decade,” said President Tate.
In support of these initiatives, LSU has designated a new cyber-military corridor on its Baton Rouge campus, with the previously named Louisiana Emerging Technology Center as the cornerstone.