CyberCorp Cadre

New Mexico Institute Of Mining And Technology, Socorro NM

Investigators

Abstract

This project seeks to continue the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMT) participation in the CyberCorps®: Scholarship for Service (SFS) program to prepare highly-qualified Cybersecurity professionals for entry into the government workforce. NMT is a Hispanic Serving Institution, designated as a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education and Research by the National Security Agency, and meeting the criteria for multiple training standards (CNSS 4011, 4012, 4013E and 4016E.) To date, the program has graduated 47 CyberCorps® SFS students including four Native Americans, three Hispanics, one Asian American, and nine women. This project will provide a multi-disciplinary, integrated education, research, and training to additional 13 CyberCorps® SFS scholars. The project's objective is to prepare CyberCorps® SFS scholars to become leaders in civil service, not merely practitioners, in the field of Cybersecurity. The NSF's CyberCorps® SFS program funds projects that address Cybersecurity education and workforce development. The Scholarship Track provides 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. The Capacity Track seeks innovative proposals leading to an increase in the ability of the United States higher education enterprise to produce Cybersecurity professionals. The curriculum includes practical, hands-on applications of Cybersecurity coordinated between the Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) Department, the Information Technology (IT) Program, the Institute for Complex Additive Systems Analysis (ICASA), and other academic departments. By integrating research projects in advanced courses, the project enhances problem solving and develops CyberCorps® SFS scholars who are subject matter experts in the area of their selected focus. The underlying curriculum principle is to integrate Cybersecurity content in every core CSE and IT course from algorithms and architecture to software engineering. For example, in the software engineering course, students learn best practices on software design and verification for security; in the compiler writing course, students learn the security implications of design decisions in compilers; and during their compiler implementation project, they implement a security optimization such as buffer overflow protection. This integration of Cybersecurity concepts impacts all of the students who take the CSE or IT courses.