The president of the United States has made it clear that cyber security is one of the most important challenges facing the nation. To help meet that need, for past eight years Cal State San Bernardino’s Cyber Security Center has focused on providing a world-class cyber security education to meet the workforce needs in this vital area.
The center’s ongoing work has resulted in receiving a new federal grant of up to $1.5 million for outreach to other colleges and university cyber security programs, and $4.3 million to renew an ongoing federal grant to fund the CyberCorps scholarship program.
“Cyber Security is a big issue facing the country and we are glad to be part of the solution,” said Tony Coulson, a professor of information and decision sciences and director of the Cyber Security Center in the university’s Jack H. Brown College of Business and Public Administration.
U.S. Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Redlands, said the two federal grants will play a critical role in training and advancing jobs in the cyber security field.
“Empowering students with the education and resources they need to be prepared for critical 21st century jobs is vital to our region, and to our nation,” Aguilar said. “Having also supported additional measures to invest in cyber security training and CAE (Center of Academic Excellence) institutions like CSUSB, I’m glad to see federal funds going toward important initiatives such as this.”
The center received a one-year renewable grant for $281,091 to continue its work and outreach to organize workshops and conferences with other cyber security programs at colleges and universities around the country. The grant, which has the potential to reach $1.5 million over five years, was from the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the U.S. Department of Commerce.
In 2014, CSUSB was designated as a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education by the National Security Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Coulson said.
“This important program has made a significant contribution to the development of the next generation of cyber security professionals joining the nation’s workforce; a workforce facing a shortage estimated in the millions,” Coulson said.
For the past several years, as a designated center, CSUSB has managed the “CAE Community” including successfully arranging annual conferences and workshops that have gathered the leading cyber security colleges and universities from across the nation, Coulson said.
“In the past year, more than 180 schools joined together to strategize on how to increase the pipeline of cyber security professional,” Coulson said. “The NICE grant will allow us to continue these important meetings for the next five years. This grant will not only enable conferences and workshops, but collaborative activities to help meet the need of government and industry.”
The center also received a $4.3 million renewal grant for the National Science Foundation CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service grant program. Now in its seventh year, the CyberCorps scholarship program is available to CSUSB juniors, seniors and graduate students, as well as community college transfers seeking to major in cyber security.
The program covers full student fees for California residents, including books, as well as an annual stipend of $22,500 for undergraduates and $34,000 for graduate students. In addition, the scholarship involves a summer internship with a federal agency, Coulson said.
Students selected for the scholarship are required to work for the federal government for up to two years upon graduation. To be eligible for the scholarship program, all students must be enrolled in full-time coursework at CSUSB in information systems and technology cyber security option (undergraduate), computer science, and public/business administration at the graduate level. Ten positions will be open in the program for fall 2017. The deadline to apply is April 30, 2017.
“We have a nationally recognized program that shows what the students at CSUSB are capable of,” Coulson said. “These grant programs are a great honor and reflect the excellence of what can be done in our region and CSUSB to help solve one of the greatest threats to our nation.”
The National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the U.S. Department of Commerce, is a partnership between government, academia and the private sector focused on cyber security education, training, and workforce development.
The mission of NICE is to energize and promote a robust network and an ecosystem of cyber security education, training, and workforce development. NICE coordinates with government, academic, and industry partners to build on existing successful programs, facilitate change and innovation, and to bring leadership and vision to increase the number of skilled cyber security professionals.
The National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 'to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense ...' With a budget of $7.5 billion in the 2016 fiscal year, the NSF is the funding source for 24 percent of all federally supported, basic research conducted by America's colleges and universities. In many fields such as mathematics, computer science and the social sciences, the NSF is the major source of federal backing.
For program details and applications, visit the CSUSB Cyber Security Center website.
About California State University, San Bernardino. California State University, San Bernardino is a preeminent center of intellectual and cultural activity in Inland Southern California. Opened in 1965 and set at the foothills of the beautiful San Bernardino Mountains, the university serves more than 20,000 students each year and graduates about 4,000 students annually. CSUSB reflects the dynamic diversity of the region and has the most diverse student population of any university in the Inland Empire, and it has the second highest African American and Hispanic enrollments of all public universities in California. More than 80 percent of those who graduate are the first in their families to do so.
For more information about Cal State San Bernardino, contact the university’s Office of Public Affairs at (909) 537-5007 and visit news.csusb.edu.