This collaborative project provides scholarships for students seeking degrees (either undergraduate or graduate) in Information Assurance (IA) at the two collaborating institutions. Each scholarship is for the last two years of a student's degree program. Scholarship students engage in rigorous academic programs that emphasize both theory and practice of IA and that incorporate research and experiential learning. Upon graduation, scholarship recipients must work for a Federal government agency in an IA position.
The scholarship program helps to address the nation's need for qualified information technology professionals working in government agencies. One of the collaborating institutions is an HBCU that has a well-established mechanism to attract talented minority students into its IA program and to help them succeed as IA professionals.
The goal of this project is to train a cadre of highly selective Cyber Security professionals to meet the federal government’s projected critical shortage of Information Assurance (IA) professionals . UNC Charlotte has successfully mentored NC A&T, a historically minority university, to become a Center of Academic Execellence in Informaiton Assurance Education as recognized by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security. Having the joint SFS program was a key success factor as it fostered collaboration through joint student supervision. In addition to providing a rich and rigorous cyber security curriculum, scholarship students received additional personal attention from the program Principal Investigators. These activities include professional development, special seminars, and extracurricular activities including participation in cyber security competitions. The joint collaborative project between the two universities supported forty nine students (twenty five at UNC Charlotte and twenty four at NC A&T). At UNC Charlotte, 28% of the supported students are female and 24% of the supported students are African American. Students were successfully placed in a variety of federal agencies including National Security Agency, various parts of the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Central Intelligence Agency, and the Federal Reserve. All except two of the students supported are graduate students. Students and faculty published over 30 refereed publications in books, journals and conferences. UNC Charlotte and NC A&T had a number of collaborative research projects resulting in joint publications as well as funded projects from the National Science Foundation.
