AIKEN — The University of South Carolina Aiken and the South Carolina National Guard signed a Memorandum of Understanding Feb. 6 memorializing a partnership centered on two facilities being constructed on campus where soldiers and students will be on the front lines of cyber security defense and training.
The $31.8 million, 43,000 square foot S.C. National Guard Cyber Integration Center will be built on the USC Aiken campus next to the Savannah River National Laboratory’s Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative. A $13 million, 24,000 square foot S.C. National Guard Readiness Center will be on campus near the Convocation Center. Groundbreaking for the centers took place last spring.
Both facilities will have shared spaces for collaboration, workforce development, education and prototyping.
USCA Chancellor Dan Heimmermann said the centers “will mark a major milestone in the region’s commitment to cyber defense and workforce development” and comprise the largest investment by the S.C. National Guard since World War II.
“This agreement will actuate the mission of the Guard Cyber integration and writing centers by supporting cyber defense and training of the next generation of cyber professionals at the university and in the guard,” he said.
“Today’s signing is the culmination of more than a dozen years of hard work that resulted in bringing these facilities to Aiken,” Heimmermann said, sharing credit with his predecessor, Sandra Jordan.
The signing took place near the close of the CSRA Cyber & Innovation Exchange, a two-day event on the USCA campus bringing together leaders in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, defense, energy and workforce development for panels and discussions about regional and national cybersecurity threats, critical infrastructure protection, AI integration, defense and energy sector resilience and workforce development.
“This MOU will solidify our partnership and our commitment to technological advancement and human advancement for decades to come, and not only in Aiken, and not only in South Carolina, but in the entire United States of America,” said Maj. Gen. Robin B. Stilwell, Adjutant General of the South Carolina National Guard. “I think the work that will be done here will be just that important, and I’m excited to see the results that emanate from this project.”
S.C. Sen. Tom Young, R-Aiken, said locating the centers on the USCA campus “is a tribute to the efforts of the university, the City of Aiken, the City of North Augusta and Aiken County and our region.”
He said it is the “culmination of years of work” and “the commitment that we have to workforce development and growth.”
“The USCA Cyber Education Center, recognized by the National Security Agency as a Center of Academic Excellence in cyber defense, will couple with the South Carolina National Guard Cyber Integration Center and make USCA graduates the highly valued cyber professionals that we want them to be,” Young said.
Graduates “will be sought after by the Department of War, the Department of Energy, and companies in our region who work closely with these and other governmental agencies,” he said.
“We also will work together to make sure that we can collaborate and find ways to institute artificial intelligence into this facility, into this university, and the missions that we’re supporting here at this time and in the future,” Young said.
S.C. Lt. Gov. Pam Evette, the event’s closing keynote speaker, described the state’s efforts to produce graduates “prepared to accept the challenges that our workforce of the future is going to give them.”
She highlighted the South Carolina Workforce and Industrial Needs Scholarship, or SC WINS, which provides up to $5,000 per year to students at the state’s technical colleges.
“The SC WINS program is invaluable,” Evette said. “It focuses on careers that we know we’re going to be deficient in in the upcoming years.”
“I’m proud to tell you that as of today, we have educated 121,000 South Carolinians,” she said.
“The workforce of tomorrow is just half the battle,” Evette said. “The other half is making sure we have the energy to get there, because the careers of tomorrow are going to require a lot of energy.”
“Energy is the key to growth,” she said.
“Last year, when the General Assembly passed our energy bill, leading the way for VC Summer to once again be resurrected, it was a winning day for South Carolina,” Evette said, referencing a nuclear reactor construction project that was cancelled and is now being restarted.
“And the good news is, in six short years, we should start seeing energy production from those reactors. Again, that is just the first phase. There’s a possibility of two more, and maybe even four more, which would be a game changer for our state,” she said.
