CybersecurityUAH to Offer H4Di Cybersecurity Course
The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) says it will be the first in the state to offer the Hacking for Defense (H4Di) cybersecurity class beginning in spring semester 2020. H4Di teaches students to work with the defense and intelligence communities to rapidly address the nation’s emerging threats and security challenges.
The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) says it will be the first in the state to offer the Hacking for Defense (H4Di) cybersecurity class beginning in spring semester 2020.
The H4Di initiative at UAH is led by the Invention to Innovation Center (I2C) and Department of Computer Science.
“The I2C presents opportunities for out of the box thinking and H4Di allows our faculty and student body to experience just that. H4Di is an immersive program designed by the best minds in entrepreneurship and education. We are glad to play a pivotal role in bringing it to campus. Through H4Di students will have the ability to work on “real-world” problem sets defined by various Dept. of Defense agencies and apply the curriculum to provide insights and solutions to respective stakeholders. This is hands-on learning at its best,” says Rigved Joshi, director at the I2C.
UAH says thatH4Di is a program of the National Security Innovation Network (NSIN) that’s powered by Palo Alto, Calif., software company BMNT Inc. and the Common Mission Project. H4Di is sponsored by the U.S. Dept. of Defense. It teaches students to work with the defense and intelligence communities to rapidly address the nation’s emerging threats and security challenges.
“I can confirm that UAH is the first school in Alabama to run the course,” says Max Weintraub, program manager at NSIN.
“Offering this course puts UAH among some of the biggest schools in the country that have partnered with NSIN,” says lead class instructor Dr. Tathagata Mukherjee, an assistant professor of Computer Science.
Weintraub says the class is different because every problem that is assigned to a student team across the country is unique and was sourced by NSIN directly from the Dept. of Defense.
“The original curriculum was created at Stanford University and expanded upon with NSIN’s support in conjunction with our partners at the Common Mission Project,” Weintraub says. “As a Dept. of Defense Program Office under the Undersecretary of Research and Engineering, we see value in creating opportunities for innovators at top universities like UAH to try to solve emergent national security problems.”
Dr. Mukherjee says he hopes students come to realize and appreciate the difficulties that are being faced by the U.S. when it comes to cyber warfare.
