This project seeks to continue Dakota State University (DSU) participation in the CyberCorps®: Scholarship for Service (SFS) program to prepare highly-qualified Cybersecurity professionals for entry into the government workforce. DSU is one of the 13 Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations as designated by the National Security Agency (NSA) and graduates students in the most technical areas of Cybersecurity in their accelerated program where a bachelors and masters degree is earned in a total of five years. This project will enroll three cohort groups of 10 students each and will support them for the last three years before graduation. Almost half of students' activities are hands-on technical exercises in offensive security practices in hardware, operating systems, networks, databases, and software. All DSU CyberCorps® SFS members will take part in innovative mechanisms of community building such as the Cybersecurity Computer Club and taking part in the North Central Region on the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) as a team member or administrator of the competition. The NSF's CyberCorps® SFS program funds projects that address Cybersecurity education and workforce development. The Scholarship Track provides funding to award scholarships to students in Cybersecurity. In return for their scholarships, recipients will work after graduation for a Federal, State, Local, or Tribal Government organization in a position related to Cybersecurity for a period equal to the length of the scholarship. The Capacity Track seeks innovative proposals leading to an increase in the ability of the United States higher education enterprise to produce Cybersecurity professionals.
To date, DSU has supported a total of 29 CyberCorps® SFS students and formed strong partnerships with both federal and state agencies, including the NSA, Navy SPAWAR, and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab. The applicable undergraduate degrees at DSU have 452 students in target majors, which are made up of 200 students in Cyber Operations, 80 students in Network & Security Administration, and 182 students in Computer Science. These three majors account for over 40% of the total on-campus student population. The graduates of DSU CyberCorps® SFS will be well versed in security policy, infrastructure operations, and defensive programming and exhibit strong oral and written communication skills.
