The University of Alabama in Huntsville’s College of Business and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) marked the latest step in their partnership with a $50,000 donation from the company to establish the UAH Cloud Center of Excellence. The program will provide students with direct access to cloud-computing education and training in order to grow their professional development skills and expand the pipeline of skilled cyber professionals across the defense industrial ecosystem.

At an Aug. 21 check-presentation ceremony at UAH’s Business Administration Building, College of Business Dean Dr. Jason Greene thanked SAIC for its role in advancing the university’s cloud-computing curriculum. “We are truly grateful for SAIC’s support of our cloud-computing curriculum,” Greene said. “SAIC’s continued leadership and commitment to education will directly enhance our business curriculum, provide access to industry-recognized certifications for students, and expand professional development opportunities for faculty. We are proud to build on a 15-year collaboration with SAIC to expand opportunities for students to succeed in technology-focused careers.”

SAIC is a Fortune 500 company that provides technology and innovation solutions for the U.S. government, serving defense, space, civilian, and intelligence sectors.

“The partnership between SAIC and UAH represents our strong commitment to the region and building the cyber workforce of the future,” said Senior Vice President Greg Fortier, SAIC Army Business Group.

“This type of investment is something our CEO, Toni Townes-Whitley, talks about all the time – to whom much is given, much is required. We have certainly been given a lot in this community, both collectively and individually, and we want to give back. We think this is one of the pieces of what is required of us to ensure an advanced talent pool is available in the region and the nation.”

The UAH Cloud Center of Excellence also makes good business sense. Fortier said he’s looking forward to seeing students who’ve completed the program filling vital roles at SAIC.

Leading the new program at UAH is Dr. Wai Yin Mok, chair, Department of Information Systems, Supply Chain, and Analytics, College of Business. He said he was “thrilled” when Greene told him that SAIC wanted to collaborate on an initiative that would allow UAH to grow its cloud-computing courses.

“For several years, we have been offering the AWS (Amazon Web Services) Academy Cloud Foundations and Cloud Architecting courses, along with the Machine Learning Foundations course – all with consistently high enrollment,” Mok said.

AWS Academy provides colleges and universities with free cloud-computing curricula designed to equip students with the knowledge and skills needed for AWS certifications and careers in cloud computing. The courses cover foundational cloud concepts as well as architecting, development, operations, and data analytics.

“Teaching courses in the AWS Academy requires instructors to undergo training themselves,” Mok said, noting that UAH is one of just a few universities in Alabama to take advantage of AWS Academy.

UAH faculty met with SAIC representatives Ed Faulkner and Chief Technology Office Director of Innovation Dr. Colby Jones to build on the AWS classes and create a five-course Cloud Graduate Certificate.

“I will teach two courses on AWS Cloud Infrastructure, the Cloud Foundations course and the associate-level Cloud Architecting course,” Mok said. “These courses will prepare students for AWS certifications.”

The new curriculum also includes these courses:

Dr. Hieu Pham, assistant professor, UAH, will teach Introduction to Analytics on AWS, which goes deeper than the AWS Academy Machine Learning Foundations course.
Dr. Vasileios Pavlopoulos, assistant professor, UAH, will teach a course on Prompt Engineering on AWS, focusing on guiding AI systems to deliver accurate results rather than hallucinations.
Dr. Colby Jones, SAIC, will teach a project-based Systems Analysis and Design course that integrates skills from the previous four courses. This course completes the sequence.

“During our discussions,” Mok said, “Dr. Jones also suggested making these five courses available to undergraduate students. Thanks to SAIC’s generous support, we will now have the resources to design an Undergraduate Cloud Solutions Concentration. I want to assure our friends at SAIC that this will not be a one-time effort. The faculty, together with Dean Greene, are already planning to expand the Graduate Certificate into a Master’s program, which will also include Microsoft Azure.”

From Greene’s perspective, the new Cloud Center of Excellence aligns closely with the mission of the UAH College of Business.

“This is a great example of how support from our partners enables our faculty to be innovative in the curriculum. This program will benefit our students and our community as we meet the needs of the workforce.”