Education Innovation Initiative - Summer Undergraduate Research Institute EI2 - SURI

Bowie State University, Bowie MD

Investigators

Abstract

The Education Innovation Initiative (EI2) - Summer Undergraduate Research Institute (SURI) in Cybersecurity (EI2-SURI) is designed to implement, in part, Bowie State University's first signature program - Education Innovation Initiative - to develop students' identities as scientists/researchers with the integration of carefully selected support activities that enable students to feel and become part of an active research community. EI2-SURI is significant because it supports two critical needs in cybersecurity and workforce development in relation to securing the national defense. As the various types of cyber threats continue to increase, so has the demand for trained cybersecurity professionals. This has resulted in a serious shortage of qualified professionals in the private and public sectors. EI2-SURI proposes to build the capacity for ten traditionally underrepresented minorities annually. The fellows are recruited from the Mid-Atlantic region, the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia (DMV) and Prince George's County where Bowie State University resides. Fellows are provided with real-world research explorations and experiences in cybersecurity. The results of planned projects will be enhanced student competency in research-related activities, advanced academic skills and increased diversity in STEM fields. The success of the proposed efforts is sustained by the integration of evidenced-based strategies related to establishing communities of learning. These communities include faculty mentors, graduate and undergraduate fellows and cybersecurity alumni, who are actively engaged in research. EI2-SURI is actively engaging a diverse community in the investigation of cybersecurity issues related to vulnerability tracking in industrial control systems, analysis of software vulnerability; secure software design and testing, malware detection, and network security.  Specifically, the following interdisciplinary cyber-related investigations optimize the best solutions to prevent and detect vulnerabilities: (1) Vulnerability Tracking in industrial control systems for Supervisory, Control, and Data Acquisition Systems designed to mitigate the risk to critical control systems, by demonstrating the feasibility of monitoring the execution of embedded Linux Kernel modules; (2) Analysis of Software Vulnerability to use visual analytics to deliver actionable security intelligence to defend software systems; (3) Security of Blockchain to compare various hardware, encryption algorithms, and implementation approaches; and (4) Network Systems' Data breaches to assess current vulnerability management protocols. The method used will include approaches such as data analytics and event log mining. Additionally, project-based learning will be used to actively engage the research community. To support the research and successfully build the community, the program planning and organization is structured around key activities including the program start-up package and orientation; research project development and implementation, weekly start up, weekly research forum; various seminars and workshops such as attending graduate school and monetizing intellectual property, industry and agency visits; and the program culminating research symposium. One expected outcome is that fellows publish their research findings and explore ways to patent their work. 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.