One of the nation’s premier cybersecurity conferences is coming to Derby City.
The 2024 CAE in Cybersecurity Annual Symposium will be held in Louisville April 16 to 19 at the Galt House Hotel, Sharon Kerrick, University of Louisville assistant vice president of digital transformation, told Business First in an exclusive interview.
UofL will host the 11th annual conference, which Kerrick expects to draw more than 500 people. Related events will also be held on campus that week, she said.
The symposium brings together members of the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity, which is comprised of more than 400 universities across the country with designations in cyber defense, cyber research and cyber operations, according to CAE’s website. Kerrick said the event will also draw people from national corporations, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Secret Service. Attendees will have the opportunity to network, receive updates and present research at the symposium.
The CAE was launched in 1999 by the National Security Agency to address the shortage of intelligence community professionals. Schools can receive the CAE-Information Assurance Education designation through “rigorous curriculum and program requirements,” according to the website.
Seven schools earned the designation the first year. The program eventually grew to address the nation’s lack of cybersecurity workers and in 2004, the Department of Homeland Security became a co-sponsor of the program.
CAE chose Louisville to hold the conference because of UofL’s work in cybersecurity, Kerrick said.
In 2020, UofL received a $6.3 million grant from the NSA to develop research and curriculum for a Cybersecurity Workforce Certificate program. The certificate uses Microsoft, IMB and Google badging and hands-on learning with real world use cases to teach artificial intelligence, blockchain and other aspects of cybersecurity. UofL worked with 20 other universities to develop the trainer-led modules.
UofL has since built a network of universities and corporations that can use the modules for free, Kerrick said, enabling people to earn certificates in cybersecurity. She said the next step is to train more trainers.
“It would be great if [Louisville] could be known as a cybersecurity hub, which is why we got the conference, because we’re drawing in so many people,” Kerrick said. “Good things are happening, that’s for sure. This [conference] is new money coming into the city. The impact on jobs, as well as the big conference, hotels, food [and] the economic impact of 500 people coming in is going to be really exciting for us."
UofL is the region's largest university, according to Louisville Business First research, with an enrollment of more than 21,500 for the fall of 2023.
The CAE symposium is funded by a National Centers for Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity grant, which is part of the NSA, according to the website. Registration for the event is not yet live, but click here for additional updates about the event.
