Cyber-Centric Multidisciplinary Security Workforce Development

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This project establishes the CyberCorps Scholarship for Service (SFS) program at the University of Arkansas, the flagship university in the State of Arkansas, with the goal to recruit, mentor, educate, and train students in the critical field of cybersecurity. Students from multiple disciplines at the undergraduate, MS and PhD levels will participate in the program. The three major departments that participate in this effort are Computer Science and Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Industrial Engineering. Leveraging the existing security research and education resources on campus, the proposed SFS program will provide the student scholars with cyber-centric multidisciplinary security training across cybersecurity, transportation security and critical infrastructure security. Each of these areas has an established research center. Personnel of these centers will work closely with student cohorts in training and supervising their education. These cohorts will also have the opportunity to carry out research in cutting-edge cyber-centric interdisciplinary security projects that are being conducted at the participating research centers. Furthermore, this endeavor will pursue a strong partnership with the Northwest Arkansas Community College (NWACC) by developing pathways for students studying at NWACC to pursue advanced degrees starting with a BS and leading up to a PhD in related areas. Throughout the program, all participating students will get internship opportunities at federal agencies including the intelligence community. When completed, this endeavor is deemed to increase our nation's cyber defense capability by producing a globally competitive cyber-centric security workforce. The University of Arkansas is a DHS/NSA Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Research and this SFS effort is led by the Arkansas Security Research and Education Institute (ASCENT), which was established with cross-cutting research and education thrusts. Since this project's focus is cyber-centric security education, each student scholar will be required to take twelve hours (four courses) of cybersecurity courses, including a required course. An online background seminar series will be developed to prepare non-computer students for taking the common course. Students from non-computer majors who have adequate knowledge in the cyber field will be allowed to substitute one cybersecurity course with a security-related course in their own area. Internships at government agencies will be available for all student scholars every summer to both equip them with practical experience in working in such agencies and to allow the agencies to train and evaluate these students for placements after their graduation.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.