19 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(09/18/13 5:42pm)
The National Security Agency recently named Auburn University a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations.
This is the second designation of academic excellence out of a 10-year relationship with the NSA, and despite controversy surrounding the agency, those closest to the relationship say it is a positive one for the University.
Accusations of sweeping domestic surveillance, and spying on nations friendly to the U.S. among other activities, have been documented through internal agency leaks.
The leaks, which began during June of this year, have prompted reviews, inspections and both public, and political debate, aimed at determining the legality of the agency's behavior.
"Auburn folks are not working in direct support of the NSA as we speak. We are not an existential arm of the NSA. I can't state that more definitively. Auburn students are not sitting over there in Shelby Center working for NSA and taking direction from them. That ain't happening," said Retired Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess, senior counsel for Auburn cyber security programs.
Burgess also said the interdisciplinary program helps meet the demands of the expanding cyber workforce, and performs the three main functions of a land-grant university: research, education and workforce development.
The Center of Academic Excellence program is a broad-spectrum approach to developing what the agency calls the U.S,'s cyber operations capacity by deepening its involvment with all levels of academic institutions.
Burgess said Auburn's general focus of research in its cyber programs is defensive in nature.
"When you have personal information out there residing someplace, that information is protected and people can't get your data and use it for nefarious purposes. Auburn's engaged in that type of work," Burgess said.
Burgess, who serves as senior counsel for national security programs, cyber programs and military affairs, has an extensive background in the military and intelligence community.
Among his many appointments, he served as the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from August 2005- May 2007.
"Throughout my career, I have been in and around the NSA. In the latter part of my career, I was a customer of the NSA. I was a user of their information. I tasked the NSA for information as I did any other part of the U.S. Intelligence Community," Burgess said.
He said that he was aware of the agency's activities.
"At the end of the day, I was confident, and still am confident, that, we had the requisite authorities to do what we were doing," Burgess said.
The NSA has been the subject of heated debate because of its intelligence-gathering practices and methods.
Drew Hamilton, assistant vice president for research for Mississippi State University, first applied to the agency in 2002 regarding academic excellence in information assurance.
He recently left his position in the computer science and software engineering department to go to Mississippi State University to help develop its cyber programs.
"We just haven't really engaged in anything that I think would really be considered to be intelligence collection or surveillance, or anything like that. We pretty much work on the technical side and all the work we've done for NSA is publicly available," Hamilton said.
David Umphress, associate director in the department of computer science and software engineering took over as acting director of the Auburn Cyber Research Center after Hamilton left.
"We do it so that we can show that we support the nation to begin with... But what the NSA does for us in return for recognizing us as a center of excellence is that they help with jobs," Umphress said. "For students that go through our program, the NSA will make sure that those students' resumes are looked at, that they are paid close attention to."
The Academic Excellence in Cyber Programs spans across multiple schools within the University.
It uses the capabilities to help development cyber program operations. It is based in a computer science, electrical engineering or computer engineering department.
(02/04/13 12:22am)
Tiger, aka War Eagle VI, the first eagle to fly at Jordan-Hare Stadium, retired in 2006, and despite being 33-years-old she still gets around.
(02/01/13 8:49pm)
The Government Accountability Project's American Whistle Blower Tour was on campus Thursday, January 31, and it brought with it two veteran whistleblowers who shared their experiences with Auburn students.
(12/23/12 6:12am)
Head Coach Tony Barbee said in Saturday's post-game interview that the game before Christmas is dreaded among coaches.
(12/16/12 6:08pm)
Finishing the game just six points shy of 70 meant that not one fan out of row J, or 9, walked away with a $10 Sports Academy gift card.
(12/02/12 7:30pm)
With little over a month to go before its first meet, the gymnastics team performed for a large audience Tuesday, Nov. 27 in its pre-season Preview Meet at the Auburn Arena.
(11/19/12 3:35pm)
Alabama A&M took a 1-2 punch from Auburn over the weekend as the women's basketball team delivered a win against the Lady Bulldogs on Sunday following Saturday's victory on the football field.
(11/16/12 11:40am)
The women's basketball team came out of last weekend's invitational with a win, a loss and a long to-do-list before this week's home game against Alabama State.
(11/09/12 8:57am)
The Women's Basketball Team has been busy both on and off the court as a new season begins next week in North Carolina against Maine.
(11/05/12 11:42am)
An Auburn freshman's junior days in equestrian sports are coming to an end, but whatever hurdles Elizabeth Benson may encounter in her next phase, her coaches have no doubt that she can clear them.
(10/26/12 10:43am)
The football team was not the only Auburn team that suffered a loss last weekend.
(10/25/12 12:31am)
From skimping, pimping and cable-car driving to reciting her poetry at a presidential inauguration, Maya Angelou is not considered a mere success story. She is said to be a Renaissance woman, and she's coming to Auburn.
She did not champion civil rights to the degree of Martin Luther King Jr., and she was not as militant as Malcolm X, but she did, to some extent, work with them.
Angelou represented another side of civil rights: the arts. Her works acted to legitimize the black woman herself as an artist, as someone capable of being the central figure and not a corollary.
To precede her arrival Nov. 8, the College of Liberal Arts will present a Renaissance-style compilation of its own with "Angelou and the Arts."
The theatre and art departments will display performances of their own respective art forms at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art Oct. 29 at 4 p.m.
There will be a presentation by the students in the intermediate I dance techniques class, a performance by the Mosaic Theatre Company and a juried art exhibit orchestrated by students in the professional practices class.
"It's a special event in her honor, since she'll be visiting campus on Nov. 8," said Adrienne Wilson, associate professor in the theatre department.
Wilson said her students in the intermediate I dance class will be performing a "structured-improvisational" dance outside of the theatre based off of an excerpt from Angelou's book, "Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas."
The piece will feature dance forms popular from the late 1940s to mid 1950s and before.
"We had a little history lesson about the rhumba, the tango, the jitterbug, the Suzie-Q, trucking, snake-hips, conga, Charleston, cha cha-cha," Wilson said laughing.
The Mosaic Theatre Company will perform four pieces, two of which were created specifically for the event.
The company held its first auditions last February.
"We are in our inaugural season," said Heather May, associate professor of theatre and artistic director of the MTC.
"It addresses a variety of issues," May said, describing the company's performance. "I would say, again, around diversity, but we take two of her poems -- so we take 'Still I Rise' and 'These Yet to be United States,' as sort of the foundation for what we're doing. For us, we really do think of diversity, pretty much, in its widest sense. The two that aren't Angelou's poems are explicitly about kind of dealing with a racist incident in the classroom space."
The professional practices class, directed by Barb Bondy, associate professor of art, will present "Maya Angelou, Phenomenal Woman: A Juried Student Exhibition of Works on Paper."
"I decided to try a real-life learning experience for the class, in addition to what they would normally gain from the class," Bondy said. "The plan was to try a project-driven approach to learning. So, instead of talking about a juried show, which is a competitive exhibition opportunity, we decided to conduct one."
The artwork that will be in the show is from students in and outside of Auburn.
"They put out a call in the Southeastern U.S. to undergraduate students, who rarely get an opportunity to be in a competitive situation," Bondy said. "They're offering professional development to students just like them."
"Angelou and the Arts" and reception Oct. 29 are free. Angelou's Nov. 8 lecture is sold out, but there will be a drawing at "Angelou and the Arts" for a chance to win tickets. More information can be found at Auburn.edu/WomensLeadership.
(10/17/12 10:12am)
It's entirely legal to shoot someone at 7 p.m. on Thursdays -- with paint, that is.
(10/09/12 11:36am)
The Lee County Humane Society's Woofstock turned 84 in dog years Saturday, Sept. 29, with 2012 being its 12th year at Kiesel Park promoting the peace, love and spaying or neutering of all K-9 kind.
(10/02/12 11:39am)
Auburn's Adaptive Recreation and Athletics organization is preparing for the wheelchair basketball team's first season playing in a new, higher-ranking division.
(09/23/12 10:56am)
With every bag of Haitian coffee Auburn's College of Agriculture Ambassadors sell, they promote sustainable economic development and supply the demands of both developed and developing countries.
(09/11/12 11:21am)
A university tapping into the potential of social media has become commonplace, but a university using social media to combat world hunger could be groundbreaking.
(09/10/12 2:15am)
Senior goalkeeper Amy Howard and junior defender Bianca Sierra had some of the highlights of Auburn's Sept. 8 win against Texas Tech University, with Howard saving 10 different times and Sierra scoring two free shots.
(09/05/12 11:14am)
The author of two award-winning books, "The Eden Hunter" and "The Southern Cross," is starting his first semester as an English professor.