The Utah Legislature recently awarded $5 million to the Intermountain Intelligence, Industry, and Security Consortium (I3SC) program through the Deep Technology Talent Initiative (DTTI).
The I3SC program, led by UVU's Center for National Security Studies and USU's Center for Anticipatory Intelligence, enables UVU and USU students to connect with industry partners like Adobe, Northrup Grumman, and Strider in order to prepare students to "work in Utah's tech sector as innovators able to think through the full range of complexity about potential security challenges," according to this UVU article.
Ryan Vogel, Director of the Center for National Security Studies at UVU, stated the following:
"The I3SC consortium between UVU, USU, and Utah industries will be a major player in preparing the workforce that can meet these challenges and help secure Utah’s emerging technology sector."
Additionally, Jeannie Johnson, Director of the Center for Anticipatory Intelligence at USU, stated the following:
"USU is excited to lead out alongside UVU in creating a leading-edge learning team — the I3SC consortium — that includes industry, state, and federal partners working together in unprecedented ways to prepare our graduates to be leaders in innovation, security, and resilience."
Utah has more than 4,000 unfilled tech jobs according to an article from ZDNet, and hundreds of students have started participating in this program to prepare to fill this growing need upon graduation.
According to the ZDNet article, "the goal is to build an academic pipeline that will prepare students to work in fields like cybersecurity, security analytics, and artificial intelligence."
Cyberattacks are becoming more and more common in Utah, and this funding will help students develop the necessary skillsets to drive innovation across Utah.
