Cyber Defenders: Interns Take on National Security Challenges
Over the past two decades, nearly 500 undergraduates and graduate students in cybersecurity, computer science, computer engineering and related fields have worked on research projects, attended training courses and technical tours while receiving mentorship and unparalleled networking opportunities.
Nearly every day, a cyberattack or newly discovered zero-day exploit hits the headlines, which makes providing the best training for the next generation of cybersecurity professionals of vital importance.
Sandia’s internship institute in cybersecurity, called the Center for Cyber Defenders, has been introducing college students from across the U.S. to important national security challenges since 2001. Over the past two decades, nearly 500 undergraduates and graduate students in cybersecurity, computer science, computer engineering and related fields have worked on research projects, attended training courses and technical tours while receiving mentorship and unparalleled networking opportunities.
“We want to expose the students to Sandia across the board, and we want them to be able to contribute to meaningful work on a national security project,” said Tiawna Cayton, the team lead for the internship program. “Hopefully, we can really get them to understand the passion behind our missions and why people want to work here.”
The students, who have ranged from those who just completed their freshman year of college to doctoral students, start out as full-time summer interns. Some of these interns become part-time, year-round interns while continuing their education, based on the fit of the student with the project and the availability of funding. Last year, about 60% of the interns transitioned, which was quite high, Tiawna said.
Approximately one-third of past interns have been hired as full-time employees upon completion of their degree, though not necessarily into the same center as the one they worked for during their internship, Tiawna said. Of the interns who were hired, 70% are still at Sandia, a remarkable statistic in the age of the Great Resignation.
“Getting to work with these teams is really rewarding, especially as one of the teams I got to work on a research project that was pretty open-ended,” said Akul Goyal, a year-round intern in the Center for Cyber Defenders and a graduate student at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, who was a summer intern last year. “The problem wasn’t well-defined, so that gave me a lot of freedom, which made it a very smooth transition from academia. What we were solving, it seemed that there were downstream applications for it, so that was cool.”
