CyberCorps Scholarship for Service (Renewal): The AZSecure Program Empowering Cybersecurity through Artificial Intelligence

University Of Arizona, Tucson AZ

Investigators

Abstract

The United States (U.S.) has a significant shortfall of highly trained cybersecurity professionals entering the government workforce, which has direct impacts on the security of the nation. The University of Arizona (UArizona) is uniquely positioned to train expert information security professionals who can synergistically leverage artificial intelligence (AI) methods, principles, and techniques to proactively tackle and automate emerging cybersecurity challenges. The UArizona project will renew and redefine the AZSecure AI for Cybersecurity (AI4Cyber) SFS program to further expand and develop training of service motivated students to be critical public defenders of America’s cyberspace. Scholars will be trained with innovative multidisciplinary curriculum and collaborative research efforts. They will be prepared to fulfill their U.S. Government Service protecting the nation against cyber-crime and cyber-disruptions. The scholars will obtain their graduate degrees in Management Information Systems (MIS), Cybersecurity, Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) or Computer Science (CS). The AZSecure AI4Cyber SFS program will fuse advanced graduate research to education and experiential learning through advanced graduate research to train cybersecurity professionals in AI4Cyber methods. The cross-disciplinary curriculum includes dedicated cybersecurity and AI coursework taught by world-class faculty mentors. Furthermore, the AZSecure AI4Cyber program will build an AI4SFS community by contributing meaningful curriculum, producing skilled cybersecurity professionals, fostering AI4Cyber faculty, and through the dissemination of AI4Cyber materials via publications, tools, and presentations for other SFS institutions. The AZSecure AI4Cyber SFS program renewal will support the building of a community of cybersecurity professionals committed to the protection of American cyberspace. This renewal will help to establish a sustained, institutionalized cybersecurity education program with profound benefits for both Arizona and the nation. Utilizing Arizona's unique position, which includes a higher proportion of Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) and a notable number of military bases compared to many other states, the program intends to draw from a varied and skilled pool of candidates. The program's recruitment strategies are focused on significantly increasing the size of the qualified applicant pool. 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.