The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is working with the U.S. space force to address the gaps in space related technologies among cybersecurity professionals.
The new cyber halo innovation research program (chirp) will work with colleges and universities to provide students with two years of training and research experience to conduct real-world scene research at PNNL in Richland, Washington – located in the laboratory of the U.S. Department of energy.
The idea is to train students so that they can find possible jobs with the space force or its industry partners, the space services division of the U.S. armed forces, established in 2019.
“We urgently need professionals with expertise to protect our mission critical space assets from adversary cyber threats,” Colonel Jennifer krolikovsky stammer, chief information officer of space systems command, said in a statement.
Students will receive scholarships to support their participation in the program. The first institutional partner is California State University San Bernardino (CSUSB), which received a US $10.5 million grant from the national security agency in 2020 for the construction of network security staff. The first batch of chirp students will support four CSUSB network security students.
