CI Lab Provides Access to Virtual Platform and Self-pace Training to USC’s ROTC

The CI Lab has partnered with USC’s ROTC to provide access to the virtual platform to USC’s Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program. USC has more than 300 ROTC students currently being prepared by the Army, Navy, and Air Force. The use of the CI Lab (https://netlab.cec.sc.edu) will permit students to access hands-on training material on Cyberoperations, Next-generation Firewalls, Advanced Networking, and others. Training material is also aligned with stackable (industry) certificates that will greatly benefit ROTC students: A+, Cyberoperations, CCNA Routing and Switching (two courses will partially cover this certificate), Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Engineer (PCNSE) and more. The above stackable certificates will also be embedded into a minor in Integrated Information Technology (IIT), Cyberoperations and Networks tracks. Note that certificates are recognized by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) guidelines for IT and cybersecurity operations. The DoD highly values the skill set covered in these certificates. Students earning them are promoted according to the US Department of Defense (DoD) Approved 8570 Baseline Certification. The figure below shows the initial meeting between Dr. Crichigno and ROTC members.