Athens State University CAE-CD Student Hub
Welcome to the institutional gateway for elite cyber defense training, competitions, and national career advancement at Athens State University. As a designated National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD), our students have exclusive access to prestigious national competitions, career placement platforms, and technical defense simulations designed to prepare them for the federal and corporate workforce.
Use the resources below to engage with our local programs, participate in national competitions, and launch your career in cyber defense.
Campus Resources & Leadership
- The CyberLab: Engage in practical exercises, ethical hacking, digital forensics, and Red Team-Blue Team cyberwarfare mock drills within our secure, isolated campus laboratory environment.
- Faculty Leadership: Contact our CAE leads in the College of Business (Sanders Hall) to join competition teams, apply for national scholarships, or map out your Management of Cybersecurity Operations curriculum.
| Faculty Lead | Role / Title | Campus Office | Email Contact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr. Darren Waldrep | CAE-CD Director & Division Head | Sanders Hall, Room 221 | [email protected] |
| Dr. Janet Willisson | Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity | Sanders Hall, Room 217 | [email protected] |
Premier Collegiate Competitions
- NCAE Cyber Games: A dedicated national tournament specifically designed as a bridge for college students to learn competitive team defense tactics without the pressure of elite, multi-year varsity brackets.
- Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC): The premier national defense event where student teams operate, manage, secure, and defend a mock production business infrastructure against live, professional Red Team attackers.
- DoE CyberForce Competition: An elite Department of Energy event where teams build defensive strategies to protect critical infrastructure assets, such as live power grids and water treatment plants, against active exploitation.
- NSA Codebreaker Challenge: A massive, multi-tiered individual challenge held every fall by the NSA focusing on low-level code analysis, cryptanalysis, and reverse engineering.
Workforce & Career Development
- National Cybersecurity Virtual Career Fair (VCF): An exclusive annual fair co-hosted by the CAE in Cybersecurity Community connecting students directly with federal agencies and premier defense contractors seeking cleared talent.
- CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service (SFS): A highly competitive federal program providing full tuition, stipends, and fees for up to three years. In exchange, recipients commit to post-graduation cybersecurity service in federal government roles.
- CyberSeek Interactive Tool: An active dashboard tracking national cybersecurity supply and demand data, allowing students to map their degree specialties to immediate high-paying career pathways.
Advanced Labs & Hands-On Training
- CAE-CD Meet Your Cyber Competition: Monthly institutional workshops hosted via the CAE CoP-CD Community using
.eduregistrations to break down upcoming CTF tactics. - Try Cyber Micro-Challenges: Quick, 15-minute hands-on CISA virtual machine tasks built around official NICE Framework work roles to test specialized technical skills.
- XP Cyber & Virtual Business Challenges: Immersive network simulations where students practice incident response and firewall configuration within virtual corporate networks.