In April 2018, SENEDIA held our annual industry-academia roundtables for Cybersecurity/IT and Engineering.
Takeaways from the Cyber/IT roundtable:
- Cybersecurity needs to be included in all IT coursework.
- With the Internet of Things, cyber must be built/baked in from design onward.
- Clearances are an issue in the defense sector, so students need to be educated early on to mind their social media posts, finances, and international travel.
- Students need exposure to different operating systems, especially LINUX if they want to go into the defense sector.
- Roundtables need to be held early October and early March for changes to happen in curriculum/course work.
Takeaways from the Engineering roundtable:
- Need grades 7-13 exposure to Defense Industry to garner both interest in STEAM and high-wage, high-skill jobs in RI.
- Soft skills students need to learn can be bolstered by teamwork from projects, capstones, and agile/open experiences.
- Possibility for local workforce training at the CCRI Newport Co. campus.
- Companies can support employees attaining their master’s so 5-year master’s not as important.
- There is a need to reframe “manufacturing”; perhaps “engineering production” or some other way to differentiate today’s advanced manufacturing from old-school manual manufacturing.
Detailed minutes from the roundtables:
