Deep Ramanayake

Deep Ramanayake serves as a Teaching Professor and Director of the Cybersecurity Program in the Department of Computer Science at Xavier University, having joined in 2019 to establish a nationally recognized cybersecurity curriculum. His leadership culminated in the program achieving NSA validation as a "National Center for Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense" in March 2023.

Education:

• Bachelor's in Math and Computer Science, Northern Kentucky University
• Master's degree, Morehead State University

Ramanayake specializes in integrating programming fundamentals with advanced cybersecurity applications, emphasizing ethical hacking methodologies and Jesuit values. His expertise spans penetration testing, vulnerability identification, and cyber defense strategies, preparing students to combat real-world threats while prioritizing societal benefit. Courses like Pentesting train students to "think like hackers" to preempt exploits through systematic vulnerability analysis.

He mentors students through weekly Cyber Defense Team sessions focused on competition preparation, translating classroom theory into practical network defense scenarios. Under his direction, Xavier's computer science program maintains a 99% career outcome rate (employment, graduate school, or volunteering) within six months of graduation, demonstrating the effectiveness of his programming-cybersecurity integration approach.