Space Command contracts for training at CU-Springs

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Feb 15, 2002 | by Barry Noreen

Under an agreement announced Thursday, the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs will start a computer network security program, and its first client will be the U.S. Space Command.

Beginning in March, CU-Springs will be the home of the Network Information and Space Security Center, where 15 Space Command personnel will begin taking classes. Pam Shockley, interim chancellor at CU-Springs, announced the program at a campus meeting of the University of Colorado Board of Regents.

CU officials hope it's the start of something big.

"We're really seeing this as a building block to prevent cyberterrorism and to help space-based defense systems," Shockley said. "It's totally building on our strengths - computer science and electrical engineering."

Eventually, CU-Springs envisions a program that also appeals to the private sector's desire for commercial computer system security. In the nearer term, the relationship with Space Command allows the university to get its foot in the door at the Pentagon.

"That is exactly where we are," said Tom Bellamy, CU-Springs' interim vice chancellor for academic affairs.

"The agreement of the Space Command is the foundation of it. We expect a lot of opportunities to come up in this area. It establishes a really strong partnership in applying for funds in ways that we might (otherwise) not be able to."

Army Lt. Gen. Edward Anderson, the Space Command's deputy commander-in-chief, said in a prepared statement the program will "create a pool of local computer professionals from which we can recruit to accomplish and enhance our Computer Network Operations mission."