Center for Cyber Excellence

About the Center for Cyber Excellence

The Center for Cyber Excellence at St. Mary’s University is a collaborative venture drawing on the expertise of faculty and staff from the School of Science, Engineering and Technology, as well as from other disciplines within the University and the University’s Information Services Division. The Center provides guidance and general cyber defense information and promotes collaboration and interaction with students, faculty and programs.

• St. Mary’s University offers a Master of Science program in Cybersecurity, as well as a 12-hour Graduate Certificate in Cybersecurity.

  LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PROGRAM

National Designation

St. Mary’s University, through the M.S. in Cybersecurity program, has been designated by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD).

Latest Updates

St. Mary’s University Cyber Rattlers team placed fourth in the Alamo AFCEA Capture the Flag Cyber Competition in 2023. Student competitors included Reetej R. Chindarkar, William U. de Marigny, Natalie M. Rankin and Joseph Drouillard.
Ayad Barsoum is serving as a Reviewer for NSA CAE-CD (Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense)
Glenn Howard and Mark Maldonado are serving as adjunct faculty members.

Affiliated Faculty and Staff

• Faculty

  Ayad Barsoum, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Computer Science
  Wenbin Luo, Ph.D., Professor of Computer Engineering
  Vahid Emamian, Ph.D., Professor of Electrical Engineering
  Robert L. Summers, J.D., Professor of Law
  Ozgur Aktunc, Ph.D., Professor of Software Engineering

• Adjunct Faculty

  Jon Ford
  Glenn Howard
  Mark Maldonado
  Brian Stuhl
  Charles J. Zinsmeyer

• Information Services

  Dean Halter, Information Security Officer, Association of Marianist Universities
  Frank Niewierski, Executive Director, Client and Systems Support, St. Mary’s University
  Troy Christman, Executive Director, Infrastructure and Enterprise Services, St. Mary’s University

Cyber Defense Activities and Organizations

AFCEA Capture the Flag: The competition is a 4-hour, Jeopardy-style competition for aspiring cyber and cybersecurity professionals. This competition is a learning tool that will measure the participant’s current familiarity with various cybersecurity topics and will further sharpen the tools they have learned through education or self-learning. St. Mary’s University has regularly competed in the competition since 2018.
Bsides
Buffer Overflow Club
Cyber Patriot: Information Security Association student chapter. The association is open to all students with an interest in information systems. The mission of the Information Security Association is to promote management practices that will ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information resources. Our goal is to facilitate interaction and education to create a more successful environment for global information systems security and for the professionals involved. 
InfraGard
ISACA San Antonio Chapter
National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competitions
National CyberWatch Center Academic Institution Membership Program
REN-ISAC
St. Mary’s Cybersecurity and Mobile Apps Camp
St. Mary’s C³: Coding and Cybersecurity Camp
WiCyS (Women in Cybersecurity)

Institutional Security Resources and Awareness

Cyber Aware @ StMU Charter (Request from Information Services)
Departmental Training Sessions: Face to Face
Information Security Plan
KnowBe4: Monthly Phishing and Annual Training
Rattler Bytes (Current)
Table Top Exercise (TTX) (Request from Information Services, contact informationsecurity@stmarytx.edu)

Faculty Publications

Additional Resources

• External Board of Advisors

  Joe H. Sánchez Jr.
  Founder and Executive Director, CyberTexas Foundation

  Dave Salisbury, Ph.D.
  Center Director, University of Dayton

  Steve Ryan
  CEO, Trinity Cyber

  John Trabucco
  IPSecure

• ---

  Contact

  _{Ayad Barsoum
  Director, Center for Cyber Excellence
  abarsoum@stmarytx.edu
  210-436-3315}

  _{Maria “Isa” Lopez
  Co-Director, Center for Cyber Excellence
  mlopez87@stmarytx.edu
  210-431-4395}