LEXINGTON, Va. Dec. 6, 2024 — Nine Virginia Military Institute cadets, along with a staff member of VMI’s cyber defense laboratory (CYDEF), recently traveled to the Virginia Army National Guard’s 91^st Cyber Brigade Readiness Center at Fort Belvoir in Fairfax County, to participate in Cyber Drill Weekend, immersing them to cybersecurity in real life scenarios.

According to Amish Parikh, IT specialist and systems engineer for CYDEF, the nine are members of VMI’s cyber captain program, of which Parikh is the head coach.

“Members of the 91^st taught our cadets a wealth of information, and they had opportunities to work with printed circuit boards, and acquired knowledge in open source intelligence and counter intel operations. They were exposed to cyber skilled jobs available in the Department of Defense.”

Raj Singh ’25, a computer science major from Honolulu, Hawaii, reported that the lessons learned during the event gave him more information about the cyber world in a real-world perspective. “It was a successful weekend of learning, having fun, and experiencing real-world job skills.”

VMI cyber captains will participate in another Cyber Drill Weekend next semester.

Marianne Hause
Communications & Marketing
VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE