Shreveport Reporter

Louisiana  Tech University doctoral student and Haughton native Dakota Digilormo  has earned a National Centers Academic Excellence (NCAE-C) Cybersecurity  Ph.D. Scholarship from the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) to  complete his studies in Cyberspace Engineering.

The scholarship is available to doctoral  students who are enrolled at NSA-designated NCAE-C universities and who  plan to pursue careers in academia after graduation. Its purpose is to  support students in programs providing quality education to bolster the  United States cybersecurity workforce.

Digilormo says that this scholarship will  help fund his current research with Dr. Galen Turner (Academic Director  and Maxfield Professor of Mathematics and Statistics) and future  collaborations with Dr. Brad Glisson (Associate Professor of Computer  Science) as he works to create new solutions to cybersecurity problems  that will emerge in the future.

“I want to pursue proactive cybersecurity  solutions to help defend our networks from ever-evolving threat actors,”  he said. “Too often, current cybersecurity measures are set around  reactive approaches rather than proactive. I want to change that. This  award will allow me to pursue my research goals by providing me with the  time needed to find a cost-effective, proactive cybersecurity solution  for modern times.”

Digilormo, a Louisiana Tech Mathematics  (M.S. ‘21) and Cyber Engineering (B.S. ‘19) alumnus, also received the  Vincent A. Forte Graduate School Fellowship in 2020 -2021 for  outstanding academic work.

NSA’s National Cryptologic School manages  the NCAE-C program. Member schools have established academic excellence  for cybersecurity curricula and offer professional development  opportunities for students and faculty along with community outreach on  cybersecurity topics.

Federal partners include the Cybersecurity  and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of  Investigation (FBI), the National Institute of Standards and Technology  (NIST)/National Initiative on Cybersecurity Education (NICE), the  National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Defense Office of  the Chief Information Officer (DoD-CIO), and U.S. Cyber Command  (USCYBERCOM).

In addition to this scholarship, an  undergraduate student received funding from the DoD’s Cyber Scholarship  program, a program to build the skills of U.S. cybersecurity  professionals so they can protect the nation in cyberspace.

Original source can be found here.