Universities have a key role in training, sustaining, and upskilling the workforce, from entry level engineers through research leadership. With undergraduate design-build projects, student competition participation, and fundamental and applied research advancing the state of the art in hydrodynamics, vessel dynamics, guidance and control, structural engineering, etc… academia has the opportunity to nurture the workforce needed to tackle the multi-disciplinary technical challenges associated with maritime uncrewed and autonomous systems. This panel-style discussion will walk through teaching, research, and extracurricular activities at George Mason University, and Virginia Tech to prepare undergraduate and graduate students for the jobs of the future in uncrewed and autonomous systems.