The Cyber Innovation Center in Bossier City has received a $5 million federal grant to take its Cyber Discovery program nationwide. U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, D-La., announced the funding yesterday. She chairs the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee. Cyber Innovation Center vice president G.B. Cazes said the grant will fund a national model for cyber education that will reach 1.7 million students and 12,000 teachers.
“They want us in every state, and we expect to reach those numbers through 65 university partners and roughly 700 high schools," Cazes said.
The cyber education model has been operating regionally through a partnership with Louisiana Tech University for the past six years. It then expanded to the University of Baltimore. Now, according to Cazes, he’ll sign up another dozen universities through a bidding process that will open next month.
"We’re very excited about what this could mean not only to our region, but the regions and the communities we roll out to," Cazes said. "If we can duplicate the impact we’ve had in our community, then we’re well on our way to solving some of the long-term problems with the lack of cyber professionals in today's workforce.”
The Cyber Discovery model helps teacher incorporate cyber security and cyber science lessons across the curriculum, and it also includes summer camps for students. During the past five years, Senator Landrieu has secured more than $2.7 million for the Cyber Innovation Center’s education programs.
