This project develops the graduate level education and research program in information assurance at Polytechnic University by building on an NSF DUE CCLI project for establishment of an undergraduate laboratory in information systems security. The principal long term goals of this project are to assist in meeting the national demand for a cadre of professionals with expertise in information assurance; to create prototype curricular material in graduate information assurance education that will serve as a widely adopted national model; and to establish an information assurance laboratory that becomes a national model for an experimentation environment providing hands-on experiences in topics related to information assurance.
Activities include: revising existing graduate level courses in information assurance to incorporate hands-on practical laboratory based experiences that supplement the theory and principles currently being taught in the classroom; developing new graduate level courses that complement the existing courses and result in a comprehensive curriculum in information assurance; establishing a laboratory consisting of heterogeneous platforms and multiple interconnected networks to facilitate hands-on experimentation and project work in issues related to information assurance; and developing a graduate level certication program in information assurance that focuses both on principles and practice needed to build and maintain a secure information systems infrastructure. The project also includes a detailed evaluation and dissemination plan.
