UMBC CyberCorps Program Renewal and Building Research-Based SFS Relationships between Community Colleges and Four-Year Schools

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The University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), a designated National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education and Research, 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. UMBC partners with Montgomery College and Prince George's Community College to support sophomores at these institutions. As a part of their studies in community college, students will help solve IT security problems for their county government through a special applied research course. Then, they will transfer to UMBC to complete their four-year degrees. UMBC offers students innovative technical research opportunities, highly qualified faculty, opportunities for professional exposure, and productive institutional relationships with numerous nearby companies, agencies, and government laboratories for internships and job placement. UMBC's approach to cybersecurity education embraces an interdisciplinary curriculum and innovative pedagogical approaches. 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.SFS scholars at UMBC pursue a range of degrees: BA, BS, MS, combined BS/MS, MPS, or PhD through existing programs in Computer Science (CS), Computer Engineering, and through the Masters in Professional Studies: Cybersecurity, in the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. Qualified students from related fields, programs, and departments also are welcome, including from Electrical Engineering, Information Systems (IS), Mathematics, Physics, Education, and Public Policy. Dedicated cybersecurity tracks exist at the undergraduate and graduate levels in CS and IS. Students at the UMBC Center for Information Security and Assurance have special opportunities to engage in mentored research projects at partner organizations, including Northrop Grumman, John Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Department of Defense Cyber Crime Institute, Laboratory for Telecommunications Sciences, and the UMBC Office of Information Technology. SFS students participate in research activities within several labs, including the UMBC Cyber Defense Lab, where current projects include educational cybersecurity assessment tools, protocol analysis, software defined networks, and high-integrity voting systems. Each year, all SFS scholars at UMBC engage in a collaborative applied research study focusing on some aspect of UMBC's computing systems.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.