University of Nebraska at Omaha Scholarship for Service Renewal/Outreach Project

内布拉斯加大学奥马哈分校(UNO)是一家指定的国家网络运营学术卓越中心(CAE-CO)，该校建议继续并扩大其对CyberCorps(R)：服务奖学金(SFS)计划的参与，为进入政府工作人员培养高素质的网络安全专业人员。此外，提出者寻求为SFS学者提供机会来构建他们自己的捕获旗帜(CTF)网络操作竞赛，以及主办一年一度的高中CTF活动。这些努力将产生一个可下载的、易于安装的CTF基础设施，该基础设施将与其他大学、社区学院和高中共享，并可能用于招收网络安全专业的新生。SFS计划为解决网络安全教育和劳动力发展的项目提供资金，包括为网络安全专业的学生提供奖学金。作为对奖学金的回报，获奖者毕业后将在联邦、州、地方或部落政府组织中与网络安全相关的职位工作一段时间，时间与奖学金的长度相同。学者们将构建一个“CTF-网络运营(CTF-CO)in a Box”项目，这将导致一个高中捕获旗帜活动的完整问题集，其中CTF-CO中的问题映射到CAE-CO指定的知识单元(KU)。学生将为“黄金时段发布”记录和准备这一基础设施；通过让几个外部大学方(例如，其他学生俱乐部、教职员工)从头开始安装基础设施来测试文档和软件包装的有效性；开发调查能力，以捕捉玩家在CTF活动中的参与度；并开发能力，使游戏作者能够识别每一项已开发挑战所需的网络安全概念、程序和判断。将进行一项评估，以确定哪些挑战太难，可能会阻碍学生选择CO途径来从事网络安全职业。作为主办CTF活动的责任的一部分，SFS的学生将负责将团队招募扩大到这些代表性不足的农村社区和仅限女性进入的高中，如奥马哈地区的杜切斯学院。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), a designated National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations (CAE-CO), proposes to continue and expand its participation in the CyberCorps(R): Scholarship for Service (SFS) program to prepare highly-qualified cybersecurity professionals for entry into the government workforce. In addition, the proposers seek to provide opportunities for SFS scholars to construct their own Capture-the-Flag (CTF) cyber operations competition, as well as host an annual high school CTF event. These efforts will yield a downloadable, easy-to-install CTF infrastructure that will be shared with other universities, community colleges, and high schools, and may be utilized for recruiting new students to cybersecurity. The SFS program funds projects that address cybersecurity education and workforce development, including funding to award scholarships to students in cybersecurity. In return for their scholarships, recipients will work after graduation for a federal, state, local, or tribal government organization in a position related to Cybersecurity for a period equal to the length of the scholarship.Scholars will be constructing a "CTF-Cyber Operations (CTF-CO) in a Box" project, which will result in a complete problem set for a High School Capture-the-Flag event where the questions in the CTF map to knowledge units (KUs) of the CAE-CO designation. The students will document and prepare this infrastructure for "prime time release;" test the validity of the documentation and the software packaging by having several outside university parties (e.g., other student clubs, faculty) install the infrastructure from scratch; develop survey capabilities that can capture player engagement with challenges in the CTF event; and develop capabilities that allow game authors to identify the cybersecurity concepts, procedures and judgments necessary for each developed challenge. An assessment will be conducted to identify challenges that are too hard and may discourage students from selecting the CO pathway for cybersecurity careers. As part of their responsibilities for hosting the CTF event, the SFS students will be tasked with expanding the recruiting for teams to these underrepresented rural communities and to female-only high schools such as Duchesne Academy in the Omaha area.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.