Brenda Marie Rivers
Lockheed Martin has provided $1.5M to the University of Central Florida to support the creation of a cyber laboratory in an effort to foster interest in entering the cybersecurity workforce.
The 970-foot Lockheed Martin Cyber Innovation Lab will be situated within UCF’s Engineering I building and will host classroom work as well as cyber defense practice activities, Lockheed said Tuesday.
The lab will be officially opened in early 2019 to support more than 350 students under UCF’s cyber programs.
“The nation is facing a challenge filling the pipeline of cyber talent, and we see it as our duty to partner with communities, our customers and academia to create resources that inspire and prepare young people for a career in this critical field,†said Tom Warner, director of Lockheed’s Cyber Defense, Range and Resilience organization.
A public ribbon-cutting ceremony and Cyber Security Summit is scheduled to take place in the lab in February 2019.
According to a study published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, more than 13K cybersecurity jobs currently remain open in Florida.
Lockheed’s cyber solutions unit has grown by 400 percent in Orlando over the past five years.
