Career Connected Cybersecurity Education

过去一年发生的一系列重大数字安全漏洞给美国企业敲响了警钟，提醒他们有必要投资网络安全。对网络安全专业人员的需求一直在迅速增长，快于公司的招聘速度，预计这种需求将持续下去。该项目的目标是增加有资格在网络安全领域工作的学生人数。该项目将为新的网络安全中心提供关键的启动支持，该中心将于2024年秋季招收第一批学生。该项目将为该项目的学生提供最先进的网络范围，降低毕业前获得行业认可证书的成本障碍，为学生提供行业指导和实习机会，并深化和发展学院与网络安全雇主的关系，以进行课程审查和学生就业机会。该项目的重点是增加高需求网络安全领域来自低收入和代表性不足的少数民族背景的工人数量，这将通过培养训练有素的网络安全工人使雇主受益。该项目将通过培训网络安全领域的职位，并将他们与该领域就业所需的资源联系起来，从而为所有参加该项目的学生带来经济发展。项目评估将包括形成性的和总结性的询问，这将为持续改进提供反馈。该项目由先进技术教育计划资助，该计划侧重于为推动国家经济的先进技术领域培养技术人员。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

A series of major digital security breaches over the past year has served as a wake-up call to Corporate America about the need to invest in cybersecurity. The need for cybersecurity professionals has been growing rapidly, faster than companies can hire, and that demand is expected to continue. The goal of this project is to increase the number of students who are qualified to work in the cybersecurity field. This project will provide crucial start-up support for a new cybersecurity concentration, which will enroll its first student cohort in the fall of 2024. The project will provide students in the program with access to a state-of-the-art cyber range, reduce cost barriers to obtaining industry-recognized credentials before graduation, provide industry mentorship and internships to students, and deepen and develop the college’s relationships with cybersecurity employers for ongoing curriculum review and student employment opportunities.The project’s focus on increasing the number of workers in the high-demand cybersecurity field who come from low-income and underrepresented minority backgrounds will benefit employers by producing well-trained cybersecurity workers. The project will lead to economic advancement for all students enrolled in the program by training them for positions in the cybersecurity field and connecting them with the resources needed to gain employment in the field. Project evaluation will include formative and summative inquiries that will provide feedback to inform continuous improvement. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the Nation's economy.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.