The dream of a vibrant downtown campus for UTSA is about to become a reality, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
UTSA has received a $70 million commitment from the U.T. System Board of Regents for construction of two new facilities at the Downtown Campus.
One will be a National Security Collaboration Center and the other a School of Data Science.
Since taking office earlier this year, a prime goal of UTSA President Taylor Eighmy has been an enhanced downtown presence, with 16,000 students, dormitories, and a new college, which will help make UTSA a global leader in cyber security.
“The economic future and well-being of San Antonio is very much tied to big data, data sciences, information management and technology, and cybersecurity. By creating an ecosystem here that brings together the business strengths of our community and the research expertise of UTSA, we will establish San Antonio as the Silicon Valley-equivalent for data science, information management and cybersecurity,” Eighmy said.
San Antonio is already the home of the U.S. Air Force Cyber Command and an office of the National Security Agency, as well as a growing number of private data security firms, many of them headquartered in the downtown Tech District.
He says the two buildings which will be constructed will help attract more cyber security students and professionals to San Antonio, and will enhance the private sector as well.
The estimates are that the U.S. will need an additional 1.8 million cyber security professionals in the coming four years, to protect U.S. private and government infrastructure from ever more sophisticated threats.
Eighmy says firms like Parsons, Raytheon, Booz Allen Hamilton, Noblis, and Accenture have expressed their intentions to join the National Security Collaboration Center, and UTSA already has a relationship with the NSA, the U.S. Army Research Lab, and and U.S. Secret Service.