Meet Dr. Krishna Sampigethaya

Dr. Sampigethaya is a respected leader in the cybersecurity industry bringing his wealth of knowledge to Embry‑Riddle. He is a pioneer in aviation cybersecurity, starting committees at international conferences, spearheading research efforts at various organizations, authoring over 50 papers and holding numerous patents. Dr. Sampigethaya brings extensive real-world experience into the classroom giving his students unique insight into the ever-evolving field of cyber intelligence and security.

What industry experience do you bring to the classroom, and how do you incorporate it into your curriculum? How does it benefit your students?

Beginning in the IT industry in India back in the 90s when the Internet was at its roots, I have spent many years securing complex aviation, aerospace and commercial products that connect to the Internet. This experience informs insights I share with students in theory and its real-world applications. Students get industry-oriented, real-world experience embedded in the instruction, and my hope is that they carry valuable knowledge, skills and abilities onto their careers.

What connections within the industry can students make that will benefit them in the future?

The cyber department hosts a distinguished speaker series throughout the academic year, where we bring some eminent experts from the industry. This is an opportunity for students to learn from and connect with highly qualified professionals. In addition, the department supports the students going to well-known international cybersecurity conferences such as the RSA Conference. And there are conferences, such as Blackhat and DEF CON, that provide students travel support in exchange for conference support service. In all such venues, students get to network not only with peers but also with hiring managers and C-level executives of multi-national companies. Having such inroads during your education itself can reap valuable career benefits. 

What types of research opportunities and labs are available for graduate students?

Research opportunities are plenty. Our cyber grad program has projects sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation, as well as industry partners such as Aviation ISAC, Boeing, Collins Aerospace and Lockheed Martin. Research areas being explored include machine learning and artificial intelligence, aviation cybersecurity, human factors, cyber competition development, embedded systems, cyber-physical systems and Internet-of-Things security. Both the Cyber Lab and the upcoming Cyber Gym will host the resources and students working on these research projects.

What type of support does your department offer students?

Apart from the above research opportunities, our cyber department offers other student employment opportunities in the Cyber Lab, such as managing the Cyber Lab backend infrastructure or the Juniper Network rack. We also offer a few select merit-based graduate assistantships to students in exchange for weekly work with faculty on scholarly and other academic activities. Furthermore, current and prospective graduate students can apply to the DoD CySP and NSF CyberCorps SFS scholarship programs that provide full-ride scholarships in exchange for service.

What advice would you give to someone considering graduate school?

Consider our cyber graduate degree program if you are looking to delve deeper into subject areas or plan to make a career change to cybersecurity. Remember that you do not have to be an expert in developing code, just interested enough to learn how the code works or inclined to protect the code or stop its bad outcomes from hurting systems, people, organizations or the nation. Ultimately, of course, a graduate education enables you to target a higher level of pay and an accelerated career path.

What do you think is the greatest advantage of earning a graduate degree from Embry‑Riddle?

The cyber department at Embry‑Riddle is one of the few in the world to have an ABET-accredited cybersecurity program. This makes the graduate degree in this department unique and recognized. The department is also considered to be part of the one NSF SFS institution in the nation for aviation and aerospace cybersecurity, designated as a DHS/NSA National Center of Academic Excellence for Cyber Defense (CAE-CD) and a member of the U.S. Cyber Command Academic Engagement Network. All these together make the graduate degree program clearly stand out from the rest and amongst the elite programs in the world.