Defending the Future - An Interview With Dr. Michael Battig

Cybersecurity is a rapidly evolving field, demanding both strong fundamentals and hands-on preparation for real-world threats. At Norwich University’s Senator Patrick Leahy School of Cybersecurity and Advanced Computing, students learn within a program nationally recognized for its rigor and impact.

“We’ve been in this business a long time,” says Dr. Michael Battig, director of the school. “Particularly, we have the holy grail of cyber programs: the National Security Agency (NSA) has designated us a Center of Academic Excellence. We earned ours just before 9/11 in 2001, so this is our 25th year.”

Battig has noticed the uptick of interest in cybersecurity. “The last few years, everybody and their brother wants to get into the cyber thing because they realize that’s a thing that will generate interest,” he says. “Students want to work for the NSA, or they want to work for the CIA, FBI, you name it. Norwich has been doing this for 25 years, we’re not newbies. Our curriculum is well established, our facilities are state of the art, and our faculty are experienced.”

“When you’re sitting in a classroom learning concepts, it will be similar everywhere. What’s the added value that we have? Well, it’s the experiences and NSA designation, we’re the leader of the six senior military colleges in establishing a cyber institute, and the cyber institute means that we have all these extracurricular activities for students to get involved in,” he says. “The most important one is that we have internships with all of the agencies I’ve mentioned. So, it’s possible, if you’re a motivated student, that by the time you graduate you could have your security clearance and have spent at least one summer or two interning in those organizations so you have job experience.”

The Benefits of a Norwich Classroom

“The thing that I love about teaching at Norwich is small class sizes. As a professor, if I’m in a room of 50 or 100 people, I’m just a sage on a stage — I’m yapping and I might as well be on YouTube,” says Battig. “But if I’m in a classroom of 15 or 20 people, by week two I know their names and something about their personality and we’re having a dialog in real time.”

He enjoys the fact that students and faculty can bounce ideas off each other. “That classroom dynamic is really great and I know for me personally, my favorite thing is when students ask really brutally honest questions. ‘Is this necessary, will I use this in my career?’ If a student doesn’t ask that during the semester, I’m actually going to be very disappointed,” he says. “I want them to challenge me, quite frankly, because I’m not up here to be a robot. It’s really about a conversation. We believe that the best educational paradigm has human beings giving and taking. As professors, we are of the view that we’re learning right along with the students because of how fast the field is changing.”

Embracing Curiosity and Evolution

“Are you a curious person? That’s the character trait that’s going to carry you through an entire career,” says Battig. “If you don’t have intellectual curiosity, that’s going to be a liability for you moving forward. The other thing is that this is a field where we’re looking at screens a lot. Our culture has gone overboard since the invention of the smartphone by looking at screens.”

Battig combats this by encouraging students to be well read. “There’s a lot of science that shows it’s a completely different part of your brain and totally different learning that you’re doing when interacting with print media,” he says. “I like to remind students a lot about what I’m reading and ask what they’re reading.”

Students are kept mentally sharp in this program and prepared to be productive professionals. “When done well, it’s a nice balance between technology and people. As a student you might think you’ll be spending all of your time looking at code or reverse engineering some malware, but you’re also going to be writing reports, giving presentations, and having team meetings,” says Battig, who sees the transformation of his well-rounded students each year. “We’ve seen students who were pretty average become superstars. The truth of the matter is that you get an opportunity to prove yourself every day.”

Learn more about the undergraduate program in Cybersecurity & Advanced Technology.