Four students in UMBC's Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering have been selected for major scholarships to study cybersecurity in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Scholarship for Service (SFS) CyberCorps program. Each student will receive full tuition, fees, and a nine-month stipend ($20,000 for undergraduates, $25,000 for MS/MPS students, and $30,000 for PhD students) for up to two years (three years for PhD). For this first year of the program at UMBC, recipients are Oliver Kubik (BS student in computer science), Brendan Masiar and Brandyn Schult (MPS students in cybersecurity), and Mary Mathews (PhD student in computer science).
While in the program at UMBC, each student will participate in paid summer internships and have opportunities to engage in mentored research opportunities at the UMBC Center for Information Security and Assurance (CISA) and its partners from industry and government. Following graduation, each student must work for the government (for pay) for one year for each year of scholarship received. Drs. Alan T. Sherman and Richard Forno direct the program using support they received from their recently awarded $2.5 million NSF grant. The CyberCorps program will produce highly-qualified professionals to meet the increasing need to protect American's cyber infrastructure.
Each year students may apply for SFS CyberCorps scholarships at UMBC, with application deadline in mid January. For details, see www.cisa.umbc.edu. In each of the next three years, UMBC expects to make six new awards. Applicants must be accepted to a full-time degree program in a cybersecurity-related field (CS, CE, cyber, EE, IS, math, physics, education, public policy).