CyberCorps Scholarship for Service (Renewal): Preparing an Adaptable Cyber Security Workforce

Regents Of The University Of Idaho, Moscow ID

Investigators

Abstract

The University of Idaho (UI) has participated in the CyberCorps®: Scholarship for Service (SFS) program since its inception in 2001. UI has prepared students to enter the federal workforce across the nation supporting cybersecurity operations and research in many aspects of the government, including the military, intelligence, law enforcement, federal banking, government operations, political branch, and critical infrastructure sectors. This renewal of the UI project will allow UI to continue educating and training diverse, highly skilled, and adaptable cybersecurity professionals. Graduates from the UI CyberCorps® program of activities have a foundational knowledge strongly rooted in mathematics and scientific theory, a practical set of skills learned through hands-on laboratories, and a research-oriented innovative approach to problem-solving. In addition, graduates develop the presentation, communication, and management skills necessary to be effective in the workforce. This enables them to design, develop, and maintain the needed secure and resilient computing systems critical to our government, thriving digital economy, and nation. This project aims to prepare undergraduate and graduate students for entry into the federal cyber workforce and life-long learning as a professional. These students will be enrolled in degree programs emphasizing cybersecurity, specifically with degrees in Cybersecurity, Computer Science, or Computer Engineering. An experienced team consisting of three faculty and one staff program manager, manages the UI SFS project, with support from several other faculty in affiliated departments. The students will be exposed to the breadth of cybersecurity concepts, including access control, accountability, auditing, cryptography, cyber ethics, cybersecurity planning, and management, computer and network forensics, legal aspects of cyber, networking, and network defense, operations security, operating systems and their defense, secure coding, and software vulnerability analysis. Students will have hands-on experience, the ability to explore real-world aspects of cybersecurity, and ongoing opportunities to interact with working government cybersecurity professionals. Students will be prepared to learn new technologies and systems and adapt to the ever changing aspects of cyberspace and cybersecurity. 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.