President Barack Obama, during his State of the Union address, discussed education and the revolution of industry, bringing it back to America. President Obama also discussed high school curriculum reform to better prepare students for tech jobs; in an effort to create more classes that focus on STEM, he mentioned rewarding schools which partner with higher education institutions and industry to create such classes.

President Obama went on to discuss the importance of funding cyber-security research, especially regarding the security of our critical infrastructure. President Obama stated:

We know hackers steal people’s identities and infiltrate private e-mail. We know foreign countries and companies swipe our corporate secrets. Now our enemies are also seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions, and our air traffic control systems. We cannot look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing in the face of real threats to our security and our economy.

Another growing concern is the security against cyber-attacks against unmanned vehicles, a concern which has ultimately led to a 4.5 year, $6 million grant from DARPA, awarded to Franz Franchetti, an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.

As we begin to see an increase in efforts to provide better defense against cyber-attacks, we can expect future funding towards research in security related computing fields, particularly to keep our critical infrastructure secure and our unmanned vehicles free from cyber-terrorists.