ANNAPOLIS, Md. \u2014 The U.S. Naval Academy has seen a big increase in cyber operations majors, and a U.S. senator said Monday that midshipmen could be useful in working on cyber challenges before they graduate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The academy\u2019s Board of Visitors, which acts as a board of trustees at civilian colleges, received an update on construction of the academy\u2019s $106 million cybersecurity building. The meeting was held on the third floor of Nimitz Library, overlooking an active construction site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vice Adm. Ted Carter, the superintendent, said classes could begin in Hopper Hall in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The freshmen class has 110 cyber operations majors, or nearly 10 percent of the class. That\u2019s up from 22 cyber majors in the class of 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe increase in interest has skyrocketed,\u201d said Paul Tortora, a retired Navy captain and director for the academy\u2019s Center for Cyber Security Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first cyber majors graduated from the academy in 2016. All midshipmen are required to take two semesters of cyber studies, including a semester in the freshman year and another in the junior year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat who is a board member, asked academy officials to keep in mind that midshipmen who get the specialized training in a cutting-edge facility could help solve important cyber problems before they graduate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI just urge you to think about our current challenges that we have in cyber and the fact that your students may very well be at the cutting edge, and we can\u2019t wait for their graduation in order to deal with some of these events,\u201d Cardin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The academy already partners with the nearby National Security Agency on summer internships for students. Tortora told the board that the academy also is working with NSA on the cyber curriculum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Andrew Phillips, the academic dean and provost at the academy, said school officials hope the building will become a center for people in cybersecurity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are really hoping that people sort of gravitate our way to use the building for much more than the courses we\u2019re teaching,\u201d Phillips told the board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The academy also is working to develop the capability to teach with classified content, Tortora said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think in the first year as we get used to putting midshipmen in a classified environment on a regular basis, we\u2019ll probably have some guest speakers that might talk about what\u2019s going on in the world, and then we might build maybe an elective or research lab\u201d for upper-level midshipmen, Tortora said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The building is named after Grace Hopper, a pioneering computer scientist and U.S. Navy rear admiral.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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