Armed with a $500,000 grant from the Arkansas Department of Higher Education in 2017, the University of Central Arkansas became the home of the region’s first fully functional cyber range for educational training. In fall 2018, the university began offering a bachelor’s in cyber security. Skyler Austen was one of the first students to enroll in the cyber security program. The North Little Rock native also took enrolled as a computer science major with an honor’s disciplinary studies minor. He served as president of both the UCA Cybersecurity Club and the UCA Computer Science Club. He interned as a cybersecurity engineering intern at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In fall 2021, he was recognized as a Bear CLAWS recipient during the August UCA Board of Trustees meeting.