This project provides scholarships for students seeking undergraduate degrees in Information Assurance (IA). Each scholarship is for the last two years of a student's degree program. Students are engaged in team-based projects -- motivated, for example, by the power grid, avionics systems, and enterprise computing -- in which they build example applications using the latest computer security techniques. Upon graduation, scholarship recipients must work for a Federal government agency in an IA position. This scholarship program is helping to address the nation's need for qualified information technology professionals working in government agencies. The project involves outreach to minorities and to two-year college transfer students.
The Scholarship for Service grant enabled the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to provide scholarships to 25 undergraduate students in the College of Engineering specializing in cyber security; 22 of them have joined the government workforce, while the other three are continuing on to advanced studies. Recognizing the importance of cyber security as a national priority, the SFS grant boosted the recognition of information assurance (IA) in undergraduate education, funded highly qualified candidates’ pursuit of IA careers, and successfully motivated 100% of our undergraduates to seek government employment. The Illinois Cyber Security Scholars Program (ICSSP) created with this award represented 12% of the total national SFS undergraduate pipeline placement. The grant made it possible for the government to recruit top undergraduates from one of the highest-ranked engineering schools in the nation. Through our program, a large group of promising young professionals have acquired the skills and knowledge to address the security challenges facing our government in protecting the nation’s critical infrastructure. The program capitalized on the excellent Computer Engineering and Computer Science degree programs at the University of Illinois to create an outstanding undergraduate scholar program in information assurance and cyber security. Our Scholarship for Service program exceeds the Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS) Training Standards and builds upon the unique Illinois computer security specialization. The SFS program facilitated the placement of all undergraduate students in summer internships at government agencies, including National Laboratories. This opportunity opened up a unique career path that is enabling our graduates to use their technical expertise in the service of government. The scholars benefited from the breadth of security interests at the Information Trust Institute (ITI) at Illinois, and their internships allowed a two-way interaction between a top university research center and various government agencies. Working with mentors in both settings enriched each scholar’s experience and made the internship program rewarding. Our SFS program, which includes both practice and theory, exposed each scholar to a research experience involving the security of critical infrastructure, including enterprise computing and/or cyber infrastructure for gas, oil, and the power grid. We have also been successful in recruiting and admitting students from under-representative groups and 2-year colleges. Furthermore, the broader impacts of this project have included outreach to 2-year college transfer students interested in continuing their education in the field of cyber security. It also offered scholarships that enabled students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds to consider IA. Finally, the scholarship provided a way for students to follow a career path that fulfills a national priority, while simultaneously enriching the security research of ITI. Our university is proud of our participation in SFS, our cohort of scholars, and their achievements.
