Cyber Leadership Development Program

Cyber Leader Development Program (CLDP) is an education track that provides additional teaching through internships, conferences, clubs, and seminars. Although it was initiated at West Point, it is openly available to all ROTC cadets. The intent of CLDP is for cadets to have robust extracurricular exposure to cyber in a variety of scenarios.

U.S. Army Cyber Command, ARCCYBER, was activated in October of 2010. Soldiers were pulled from Signal, Military Intelligence, and other parts of the Army to develop this branch.

As ARCYBER continues to grow its need for officers with required technical competencies increases. The solution: CLDP. Upon completion of the CLDP cadets will have paved the way for a cyber related career.

CLDP at UC

Former ARCCYBER and 2nd Army officer LTC Bender initiated the CLDP program at UC in 2015. It is now the largest CLDP program outside of West Point, with participation from 15 cadets. Cadets at UC participate in the group CyberCrime Cats, a student run club that provides challening, hands on experiences with different information technology topics with a focus on cybersecurity. UC cadets, allow with the United States Military Academy (USMA) sit in on different cyber related talks throughout the semester, granting a chance to meet those directly involved with Army Cyber and USMA CLDP.

Our goal is to continue growing our CLDP program and to continue developing our participating cadets into technically competent leaders.

The University of Cincinnati is designated a National Security Agency (NSA) Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations for five consecutive academic years commencing with the 2014-2015 academic year.

As a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations (CAE-CO), the University of Cincinnati provides:

Expertise in the entire cybersecurity spectrum — human behavior and strategic policy analysis, software and network integration, algorithm development, data encryption and information security analytics
A comprehensive, public, doctoral degree-granting institution of 43,000 students that is judged by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to to have “Very High Research Activitiy”
University-Industry partnerships supported by the University of Cincinnati Research Institute (UCRI)
Training for tomorrow’s workforce through graduate and undergraduate degrees, minors and certificate programs related to cybersecurity integrated in a world-renowned cooperative education experience

Recommended Majors & Minors

College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS)

Computer Engineering (BS)
Computer Science (BS/Minor)
Electrical Engineering (BS)
Electrical Engineering & Technology (BS)
Electrical Engineering & Smart Grid (Minor)
Embedded Systems (Minor)
Robotics & Automation (Minor)

College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services (CECH)

Information Technology (BS/Minor)
Foundations in Cybersecurity (Undergrad Cert)
Networking (Undergrad Cert)
Software Development (Undergrad Cert)

College of Business

Information Systems (BS/Minor)

College of Arts & Applied Sciences

Computational Science (Undergrad Cert)
Cybersecurity (BS (SY16-17 [T]))

CDT Mayer's Cyber Internship

CDT Mayer interned for LTC Williams and the Ohio National Guard’s Computer Network Defense Team over the summer of 2015. While with the CND Team he participated in a wide range of cyber security activities and projects from table top exercises to interacting with industry. Table top exercises consisted of government and private industry working through responses to a critical cyber incident in the State of Ohio. Working with private businesses also gave an insight into the cyber infrastructure of the state. “The experiences from working with the OHARNG were second to none that I would not have access to in the private industry.” CDT Mayer hopes to branch Cyber upon commissioning into the United States Army as a Second Lieutenant.