Through this scholarship program Auburn University is helping to mitigate the severe shortage of information assurance personnel in the Federal Civil Service. This shortage is particularly acute in the Huntsville-Redstone Arsenal region of Alabama. There are also shortages in the Montgomery-Maxwell AFB area that is geographically close to Auburn and its two academic partners, Alabama State University and Tuskegee University.
The Auburn University SFS program is multi-disciplinary and is providing SFS scholarships to students enrolled in the College of Engineering, the College of Business, and the College of Science and Mathematics, as well as to students enrolled at partner institutions Tuskegee University and Alabama State University. Both Tuskegee and Alabama State are historically Black institutions.
As a National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security designated Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education, Auburn University is committed to developing outstanding IA graduates and motivating them for careers in the Federal IA workforce. Auburn's long-term research and education relationship with the Huntsville and Montgomery areas enable Auburn to make special contributions to the success of the SFS program by aligning scholarship recipients with Federal agencies early in their academic careers.
Auburn University has large, diverse, multidisciplinary faculty involvement in information assurance research and education. Faculty diversity is also reflected in the student diversity, and Auburn has a strong SFS student recruitment and retention plan in place that has a strong mentoring component. SFS students also are participating in faculty research.
