CyberCorps Scholarship for Service (Renewal): Secure Computing Initiative

新泽西理工学院(NJIT)的这个项目将继续并扩大安全计算倡议(SCI)，作为CyberCorps®：服务奖学金(SFS)计划的一部分。SCI旨在培养下一代网络安全专业人员，以满足国家对网络安全专家的需求，同时促进多样性、学习和发现。自2016年以来，SCI成功地招聘、培训并将高素质的网络安全专家安排在政府职位上。SCI项目招收大三或大四的学生，并支持他们完成NJIT提供的两个网络安全硕士学位之一：网络安全和隐私硕士学位或信息技术管理和安全硕士学位。该项目还包括几项招收多元化学生群体的活动，例如与NJIT的默里科技女性中心合作提高性别多样性，与NJIT的西班牙裔和非裔美国人专业协会分会合作加强种族/民族多样性，以及与NJIT的教育机会计划办公室合作招收来自弱势社会经济背景的学生。SCI网络安全教育模式具有七个特点：灵活的网络安全课程，体验式学习，研究支持的教育，培养学生的创造力，网络安全技术观察活动，培养学生在压力下工作的能力，以及多层次指导。NJIT对网络安全教育有着坚定的承诺，专注于这一领域的40多门课程证明了这一点。因此，NJIT的本科生和研究生课程允许SCI学生灵活选择他们的网络安全专业领域。此外，SCI还纳入了与国家网络安全教育倡议(NICE)网络安全劳动力框架相对应的体验式学习项目。SCI学者被要求参与一个研究项目，导师来自一群积极从事研究的教职员工，他们教授和开展网络安全方面的研究。通过培训研究项目的设计思维方法和在跨学科团队中工作来激发创造力。为了让学生了解不断变化的网络安全威胁，SCI组织了一个网络安全技术观察，其中包括调查最近的网络安全漏洞，分析它们，并从中吸取教训。为了培养在压力下工作的适当技能，SCI的学生参加网络安全比赛，在比赛中，他们通常必须在有限的时间内解决实际问题。最后，SCI被构建为一种多层次的指导方法，其中包括来自作为导师的PI和同行的指导/反馈。除了培训下一代网络安全工作人员外，SCI还产生有助于推进网络安全纪律的科学成果和公开可用的软件。许多SCI活动涉及与普通公众的接触，并可能使整个社会认识到网络安全的重要性。外展活动还包括侧重于高中生网络安全教育的丰富计划。该项目由CyberCorps®服务奖学金(SFS)计划支持，该计划为建立或继续开展网络安全奖学金计划的提案提供资金，并与美国国家网络战略保持一致，以培养一支优秀的网络安全队伍。毕业后，奖学金获得者被要求在联邦、州、地方或部落政府组织的网络安全工作中工作，时间与他们的奖学金支持相同。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。

This New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) project will continue and expand the Secure Computing Initiative (SCI) as part of the CyberCorps®: Scholarship for Service (SFS) program. SCI is designed to prepare the next generation of cybersecurity professionals to fulfill the national need for cybersecurity experts, while promoting diversity, learning, and discovery. SCI has been successful in recruiting, training, and placing highly qualified cybersecurity experts in government positions since 2016. The SCI project recruits students in their junior or senior undergraduate year and supports them through the completion of one of two cybersecurity master’s degrees offered at NJIT: MS in Cyber Security and Privacy or MS in Information Technology Administration and Security. The project also includes several activities to recruit a diverse student body, such as working with the NJIT’s Murray Center for Women in Technology to enhance gender diversity, collaborating with the NJIT chapters of Hispanic and African American professional societies to enhance racial/ethnic diversity, and cooperating with the NJIT’s Educational Opportunity Program office to recruit students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds.The SCI cybersecurity education model is characterized by seven features: flexible cybersecurity curricula, experiential learning, research-supported education, nurturing students’ creativity, a cybersecurity technology watch activity, fostering students’ abilities to work under stress, and multi-tier mentoring. NJIT has a strong commitment to cybersecurity education, demonstrated by more than 40 courses that focus on this area. As a result, NJIT’s undergraduate and graduate programs allow the SCI students flexibility in choosing their area of cybersecurity specialization. In addition, SCI incorporates experiential learning projects that map to the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Cybersecurity Workforce framework. SCI scholars are required to participate in a research project with a mentor drawn from a pool of research-active faculty who teach and conduct research in cybersecurity. Creativity is stimulated through training in design-thinking approaches for research projects and working in interdisciplinary teams. To keep the students abreast of evolving cybersecurity threats, SCI organizes a cybersecurity technology watch, which consists of investigating recent cybersecurity breaches, analyzing them, and drawing lessons from them. To develop appropriate skills for work under stress, the SCI students participate in cybersecurity competitions, in which they typically have to solve practical problems in a limited amount of time. Finally, SCI is structured for a multi-tier mentoring approach that includes guidance/feedback both from the PIs and peers serving as mentors. In addition to training the next generation cybersecurity workforce, SCI also produces scientific results and publicly available software that helps advance the discipline of cybersecurity. Many of the SCI activities involve contact with the general public and are likely to sensitize society at large to the importance of cybersecurity. The outreach activities also include enrichment programs that focus on cybersecurity education for high school students.This project is supported by the CyberCorps® Scholarship for Service (SFS) program, which funds proposals establishing or continuing scholarship programs in cybersecurity and aligns with the U.S. National Cyber Strategy to develop a superior cybersecurity workforce. Following graduation, scholarship recipients are required to work in cybersecurity for a federal, state, local, or tribal Government organization for the same duration as their scholarship support.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.