By Maj. José A. Gutierrez Del Arroyo, PhD, USAF
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
Air Force Institute of Technology

Citing near-peer competition in the global stage and a need to maintain a technological edge, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall III has placed a renewed emphasis on graduate education across the Air and Space Forces, and the AFIT Graduate School of Engineering and Management is leading the charge. AFIT graduate programs provide students the time, space, and flexibility to tackle difficult technical problems. Through rigorous coursework and an extensive research exercise, graduates learn to become deeper thinkers and better problem solvers.

With respect to cyber-specific education, the school offers a bevy of degree opportunities related to cyber operations, cyber security, and cyber-physical systems and technologies. Its cyber crown jewel is the 18-month Master of Science in Cyber Operations (GCO), in which students are exposed to a wide variety of topics, including cyber warfare in military operations, cyber attack and defense, secure software design and reverse engineering, data security through cryptography, and cyber-physical system security. Students in the Master of Science in Computer Engineering (GCE) and the Master of Science in Computer Science (GCS) programs may also choose to pursue the Cyber Security or Computer Networks sequences within their respective programs, which expose them to a subset of the topics offered to the GCO students.

The most recent addition to the graduate catalog is the 12-month Master of Cyber Systems (GCY) program, which comprises the same course requirements as the GCO program but carries a shortened research exercise in the form of a capstone – this program is only available to recent US Air Force Academy graduates awaiting pilot training.

Those students pursuing graduate degrees must also complete advanced graduate-level mathematics courses and breadth courses, and they must complete and defend a research exercise, often making contributions to active research in cybersecurity in the form of tools, novel techniques, and peer-reviewed best practices. That said, many non-degree seeking students are still able to interact with AFIT cyber courses through certificate programs. Certificate programs are available to students who are not actively pursuing graduate degrees or to students who wish to augment their programs with additional cyber-specific coursework. Those include the Certificate in Cyber-Physical Sensing: Artificial Intelligence, and Cyber-Physical Sensing: Cyber Attack, both of which expose students to subsets of the courses available to GCO students.

Many of the students in the cyber programs are Cyberspace Operations (17X) officers and consequently move on to contribute directly to military cyber operations. Past graduates of the AFIT cyber programs have gone on to fight in offensive and defense cyber operations as operators, developers, planners, and leaders – with abilities to solve problems far ahead of their peers.

The Air and Space Forces continue to value the world-class education that AFIT provides, sending nearly 30 students each year to complete cyber degrees. Given the ever-changing nature of the cyber warfighting domain, where new tools and techniques age quicker than they are produced, and where new difficult technical problems arise every day, warfighters with graduate education are in exceptionally high demand.