CyberCorps Scholarship for Service: Expanding the Cybersecurity Workforce and Curriculum Assessment Methods in the State of Wisconsin (CyberWIN)

Marquette University, Milwaukee WI

Investigators

Abstract

The CyberWIN project at Marquette University (MU), a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education (CAE-CDE), will recruit and train the next generation of cybersecurity professionals to meet the needs of the public sector. CyberWIN will support students across the accelerated and traditional Computer and Information Science M.S. programs, with a specialization in Information Assurance and Cyber Defense, and the Computer Science PhD program, with cybersecurity-focused research. Apart from their involvement in rigorous coursework, research projects in cybersecurity and learning analytics, symposia, and hackathons, the scholars will also mentor Milwaukee high school students of the federal Trio program, Upward Bound Math & Science, with the goal of attracting more students to cybersecurity and computing fields. CyberWIN has five goals: (1) produce Master’s degree graduates and PhD degree graduates in cybersecurity during the five-year period of the project, (2) recruit prospective scholars with high potential of success from diverse academic backgrounds, (3) provide high quality instruction, especially in core cybersecurity classes, (4) cultivate a strong, collaborative relationship with state and federal agencies to place scholars in internships and full time appointments, and (5) contribute a novel program assessment methodology, based on concept maps, to the learning analytics community. Through this novel assessment, the project will further evaluate and compare the professional development of specific groups based on, for example, coursework, internship experiences, or demographics. CyberWIN has the potential to uncover the high-impact practices that increase students’ commitment and any effects that personal experiences may have on determining them. This framework aims to capture the whole educational experience through rich, multi-dimensional analysis that can be adopted by other institutions. 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.