SAN ANTONIO – The University of Texas at San Antonio has big plans for its National Security Collaboration Center that will be built east of Interstate 35 as a key element of the university's planned downtown expansion.
The executive director of the center is retired Brigadier Gen. Guy Walsh, who had been working with the U.S. Cyber Command for the past eight years.
"We're trying to bring together the federal government that has a very large position here within the San Antonio area. We're trying to bring industry, which is a huge growing. As you know, that just recently, the city of San Antonio and the state of Texas were named the No. 1 area for growth and cybersecurity in the United States. And then the final piece there is really about building out our workforce development, being able to create the job," Walsh said.
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UTSA is adding cybersecurity to majors like management and business in hopes that San Antonio can help fill the cybersecurity workforce gap.
"We're looking at a workforce gap, not only here in San Antonio and in Texas, but throughout the United States almost worldwide right now. So that's where again catching up and broadening education so that our education field, that our curriculum, whether it be in high school, whether it be at universities, whether it be above that level, they'd be expanded. And so that's a major piece to be able to build the workforce," Walsh said.
Walsh said current enrollment at the downtown campus is more than 3,700 students and by 2028, will grow to almost 10,000.
The downtown center will break ground in March.
Fast Facts: UTSA National Security Collaboration Center