Summarized by the Alliance for Fort Gordon
Published July 17, 2026
Augusta University (AU) was formally designated as a Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) in Cyber Operations (CO) at the CAE Symposium in Pittsburgh at the end of April. While over 400 institutions hold the Cyber Defense (CAE-CD) designation, only a small, elite group of 23 schools qualify for the Cyber Operations (CAE-CO) level. This requires a rigorous interdisciplinary curriculum firmly rooted in computer science, computer engineering, or electrical engineering. The programs are heavily focused on highly specialized tasks like system analysis, collection, exploitation, and response.