COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – The Texas A&M Board of Regents could approve new programs across the 12 universities that make up the A&M system at this week’s board meeting. Two of the potential new programs include a Bachelor’s Degree in Maritime Operations at Texas A&M University Galveston, and a Master’s Degree in Cybersecurity right here in College Station.
“This is a significant need for the state of Texas and for our nation,” said Martin Carlisle, the associate department head of computer science at Texas A&M. “We’re trying to fill that need by providing trained graduates who can help protect us in the digital domain.”
Carlisle said that as more day-to-day life happens online, such as banking, shopping, and posting, offering a master’s degree in general cybersecurity at A&M is important.
“We need people who are highly trained to defend those frontiers, both against criminals and against nation states who would want to take advantage of us,” Carlisle said.
The program would focus on “things like how do we deploy secure networks? How do we design protocols for communication that are secure? How do we look at systems that already exist and analyze them for vulnerabilities,” Carlisle said.
The bachelor’s degree in Maritime Operations could also come to fruition at this week’s Regents meeting, which the Department Head of Maritime Transportation, George Edenfield, said is necessary to support the growing demand for port operations.
“There’s a tremendous focus currently on shipping, and building U.S. shipping in particular, that for every job that there exists on the ship, there are at least three to four jobs that are necessary shore side to be able to safely provide for the operation of those vessels and to support those vessels,” Edenfield said.
This new Maritime degree would prepare students for shore-based jobs needed to allow for safe transit in and out of us ports, of which Texas alone has 13.
“Nearly 99% of all goods that we use on a daily basis come into the United States on board ships. So it’s tremendously important in terms of our GDP,” Edenfield added.
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