Capping off a week of groundbreakings and grand openings, Huntsville celebrated a particularly notable milestone on Friday–the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering (ASCTE), the first school of its type in the nation.

Housed on a 26-acre campus on the corner of Wynn Drive and Bradford Drive in Cummings Research Park East, the state’s newest magnet school has a total of 254 students from 61 cities and towns across the state, 103 of whom live on campus during the academic year. Unique courses offered include Technical Writing, Biotech, Music Tech, History of Cryptology, Social Engineering, and Offensive Security & Assurance.

A large audience gathered in the Schola last Friday to hear Governor Kay Ivey and Huntsville City Mayor speak at the ACSTE Ribbon Cutting

A wide assortment of supporters and dignitaries gathered in the Schola, a large windowed space offering a view of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center’s Saturn V in the background. Speaking at the event were ASCTE Foundation Executive Director PeggyLee Wright, Mayor Tommy Battle, ASCTE Foundation board member Dr. Claudette Owens, ASCTE President Matthew Massey, Alabama State Senator Arthur Orr, and Governor Kay Ivey.

Although Foundation Board President and School Board of Trustees member Alicia Ryan was out of the country and could not attend the event, she was clearly there in spirit, with her name being brought up several times as an invaluable member of the team that made the school a reality.

“This represents a multi-year collaboration between partnerships in industry, both commercial and DoD, in nonprofits, in academia, and in government. When those five enterprises work together, magic happens,” Wright said.

What many of you in our audience don’t understand is that we are a state school, and in a state school we do not get tax dollars for brick and mortar. Governor Ivey has been so generous with us on the budget to give us money to pay for salaries, for teachers, professors, equipment, but what state schools don’t get is money for brick and mortar. So the partners in education that we have…they’re investing not only in building this campus, but they’re investing in the students of Alabama from today into the future.”

Major donors to ASCTE include Raytheon Technologies, Redstone Federal Credit Union, SAIC, the City of Huntsville, Leidos, Northrop Grumman, Alabama Power, Colsa, Radiance Technologies, Aetos, CACI International, Davidson, Deloitte, META, Monte Sano Research, Intuitive, Sentar, Torch Technologies, Trideum, DCS Corp., AT&T, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Huntsville Utilities, Lockheed Martin, APT Research, PPG, Regions, TCU, DESE, Adtran, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Chugach, and Cyber Huntsville.

Mayor Battle noted that this has been a busy week of ribbon cuttings and other events, with 2700 people visiting this week’s National Cyber Summit at the Von Braun Center. “And we cap off the week right here at Alabama’s cyber engineering school…this is just a part of what we do here in Huntsville. We’re in the middle of Research Park, where we have more engineering professionals per capita than anywhere else in the U.S.,” Battle said.

Huntsville City Mayor Tommy Battle discusses the impact that the ACSTE will have on North Alabama education

“As an elected official sometimes that’s good, and sometimes it causes PowerPoints and graphs,” he added, eliciting laughter from the audience. “But the great thing about it is that we live in a community that believes in education. We believe in centers of excellence, we believe in being the best that we can be…we’re going to be job multipliers.”

Dr. Owens’s address to the audience centered around Alabama firsts, including the first submarine to sink a warship, the first 911 call, and, of course, Marshall Space Flight Center building the first rocket to send humans to the Moon. “Today we’re here with another first with the first Alabama, first national magnet school of cyber and engineering. Where else but in Alabama–in Huntsville, Alabama.”

Massey described the school’s mission and vision, explaining that the school seeks to be a national model working with government agencies and stakeholders, industry partners, higher education, and other secondary schools and their leadership to educate students in emerging fields of technology. “Today is a celebration of that vision becoming a reality. This has been an incredible team effort to make this possible and we could not have done it without our partners.”

He also highlighted the school’s unique curriculum, which he described as tailored to fit what students need and designed to remain relevant and impactful. He added that students do not just receive learning within classrooms, but also outside of school through field experience and internships.

Senator Orr recalled visiting Governor Ivey’s office with other foundation members in 2018 to share their vision for the school. “I remember sitting there with leadership from the legislature, from the Madison County delegation, and from the Huntsville community. We pitched to Governor Ivey the idea and she looked left, she looked right after hearing all the information, and she said ‘let’s do it.’”

This was Governor Ivey’s second trip to Huntsville this week, with the first one being the groundbreaking ceremony for the federal courthouse in Downtown Huntsville. “This is a city that knows no bounds when it comes to expansion and opportunities. The facility before me now stands as a testament to our commitment to being innovative in every way in the State of Alabama,” she said.

The opening of the Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering is the result of multi-year collaborative efforts and once again, Alabama continues to show the world what we’re made of and that we are ready for what is yet to come. This state-of-the-art facility is the only, and let me say that again…the only high school in the entire nation focused on integrating cyber technology and engineering into the academic disciplines.”

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey attended the ACSTE Ribbon Cutting, her second event in Huntsville this past week

Gov. Ivey credited Massey with doing a great job of laying the groundwork to prepare the state’s students for the jobs of tomorrow.

“Without the help of everyone here, Alabama would not be making such important and necessary strides in STEM education, which we all know is critical for our state’s continued success,” she continued. “Opportunities in STEM education across the state continue to grow and this school will create a pipeline to close the gap that will fill the jobs still to come.”

Gov. Ivey offered “a mighty congratulations” in advance to the ASCTE graduating class of 2023. “Alabama is laser focused and I believe in the potential of our state like never before. We are a state of innovators, thinkers, and dreamers. The state’s very history is proof of that, and the opening of this campus marks yet another exciting chapter in Alabama’s trailblazing in scientific innovation.”

Images provided by Steve Babin Photography.