Intelligence Studies Training Gives Students a "Competitive Advantage"

The Center for Intelligence and Security Studies at Ole Miss is helping students get ahead in the job field through usage of computer software currently used in the intelligence field.

“We are currently in the process of kind of teaching students how to use different software programs that are used by the intelligence community,” Melissa Graves, project coordinator for CISS, said.

According to Walter Flaschka, network administrator for the center, CISS usually holds one set of sessions per semester for those students in the program. The sessions have three to eight students each. The students do not have to be enrolled in a certain course to get training on the programs.

“Everyone might just be at different levels of their course work,” Flaschka said. “…We’re working on integrating some of this software stuff into a new analytics course and when that happens, everyone will have the same exposure to the software.”

The CISS currently holds contracts for the usage of three different analytical programs. These programs are Palantir, CrimeLink and i2 Analyst’s Notebook. According to a statement from the center, the total costs of the contracts are more than $1 million.

Carl Jensen, director of the Center for Intelligence and Security Studies, explained how the types of software are different.

“Analyst Notebook looks at patterns and shows it in a way that links everything together,” Jensen said. “Palantir does something similar and is newer. But it takes the information and looks at it in a different way. That’s what’s great about computers-they can look at information and link it much more quickly than we can do on our own.”

Flaschka also said that interested faculty and staff are sometimes allowed to learn how the software works. According to Flaschka, most of it must be used in the center but some modified versions of the software are available for the students to use.

The Center for Intelligence and Security Studies also uses their software for an exercise called “Days of Intrigue.”

According to Flaschka, the pretend war game gives new students a multiple day experience in which they use the software they have trained on. The staff at CISS creates a fake emergency which the students must use their skills to analyze. The students then input evidence and data into the software in order to attempt to find a solution to the emergency.

“Each piece of the software is an expert system, and so we only use one at a time,” Flaschka said in reference to the software chosen to use in each drill. “This last time we used Palantir. Next time we might be able to use Analyst Notebook.”

“The knowledge these students get-the knowledge about the software-it’s a real competitive advantage because these software are used all over the intelligence community. That’s one of the reasons we want to get it in front of them,” Flaschka said.

To watch a short video about "Days of Intrigue," click here.