CSET's Ali Crawford and Jessica Ji submitted this comment to the Office of the National Cyber Director in response to a request for information on a national strategy for a cyber workforce, training, and education.

In the current cyber-threat environment, a well-educated workforce is critical to U.S. national security. Today, however, nearly six hundred thousand cybersecurity positions remain unfilled across the public and private sectors. This report explores high school cybersecurity competitions as a potential avenue for increasing the domestic cyber talent pipeline. The authors examine the competitions, their reach, and their impact on students’ educational and professional development.

In an opinion piece for The National Interest, Research Analysts Dakota Cary and Ali Crawford make the case for the use of U.S. federal prize competitions to spur innovation to compete with China.

In science and technology, U.S. federal prize competitions are a way to promote innovation, advance knowledge, and solicit technological solutions to problems. In this report, the authors identify the unique advantages of such competitions over traditional R&D processes, and how these advantages might benefit artificial intelligence research.