UTSA Creating Opportunities for Outliers
The University of Texas at San Antonio announced an expansion to their cybersecurity and data sciences programs. This creates opportunity for outliers.
The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) recently announced an expansion of their cybersecurity and data sciences programs. This ambitious project is aimed at fulfilling a need in the future- qualified cybersecurity specialists and data scientists. The University of Texas Board of Regents approved a $70 million investment in the program. Graham Weston, founder of Rackspace and a San Antonio-area investor, has also contributed $15 million. This new center will be creating thousands, possibly millions, of career opportunities in the cybersecurity industry. There is another opportunity, albeit indirectly, that UTSA is creating. An opportunity for an outlier.
Outliers
Back in 2011, Malcolm Gladwell, the author of the bestselling "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking", published "Outliers: The Story of Success". In "Outliers", Gladwell argues that successful people, though hardworking, were uniquely positioned in history to take advantage of a new opportunity.NHL All-Stars
Within the first chapter, Gladwell breaks down the rosters of the NHL All-Star Team. These are the players who consistently outperform their teammates and rivals, the best-of-the-best. And Gladwell points out a commonality among most of them- their birthdays. Most of the NHL All-Stars have birthdays that fall within the first three months of the year. The reason for this is junior hockey leagues have the age cutoff on January 1st. All players born during that year end up on teams competing against each other. Gladwell points out that players of the same age are not all the same. Those born in January, February, and March will have a slight age advantage. Thanks to their early births, they develop a little bit more than those born in the latter part of the year. Thanks to this slight age advantage, these players perform just a little bit better than the rest. And when it comes time to pick the players to join the traveling teams, these are the ones who most likely make the cut. Thanks to this slight advantage, they find themselves on a team with dedicating coaching. Now the slight advantage becomes a more noticeable one. This doesn’t mean all NHL All-Stars are born between January and March. There are still All-Stars whose birthdays fall between April and December. Gladwell’s simply pointing out that they’re in the minority here. These players who have a slight advantage were able to turn into an even bigger one when the right opportunity came along. Gladwell goes on to identify other outliers who followed a similar path.Bill Gates

What’s UTSA Doing?

The Silicon Valley of Cybersecurity and Data Science
The creation of the NSCC is only part of San Antonio’s potential. As more and more cybersecurity and data science jobs are required, UTSA is going to need to fill the classrooms first before they can offer qualified applicants. But plans are already in place to fill that need. UTSA, as well as school districts in and around San Antonio, has launched initiatives to help students get a jump start on the learning curve. Schools already have coding classes and specialized programs to promote interest in this growing field. A common practice among area schools is for students to pick a specific career track. Based on their choice, students will receive focused instruction for their chosen career path. Getting students to think about this choice earlier is part of a larger initiative to create quality enrollment for colleges. Especially UTSA. With quality enrollment, students are more likely to enter a field related to their degree. Thanks to these initiatives and efforts, San Antonio is poised to be the cybersecurity capital of the nation. The city already has the second largest concentration of cybersecurity and defense professionals after Washington DC and UTSA is first when comes to cybersecurity education.Further Advantages
Having the 24th and 25th Air Force Wings within the city limits is also a huge plus. The 24th Wing concerns itself with the global cyberspace capabilities of the Air Force, specifically, cybersecurity. The 25th Wing of the Air Force provides security throughout the Air Force overall. With these two wings stationed in San Antonio, there’s an above-average number of trained professionals in cybersecurity, as well as data sciences, in that area. As a result, there is an abundance of cybersecurity companies and consultancy firms with headquarters here. According to Attwood, over 90% of those companies are working on government contracts. What about the commercial side? When commercial companies catch on to this, San Antonio will explode with potential.Providing an Opportunity
