This fall Professor Alan Sherman will teach the second UMBC edition of the NSF INSuRE project's Cybersecurity Research course as a special topics course (CMSC 491/691). The course will be limited to 24 students — 18 graduate and six undergraduate. SFS cyber scholars are strongly encouraged to take the course. BS, MS, MPS, and PhD students from any appropriate degree program who are able to carry out research in any relevant cybersecurity area are welcome.
Undergraduates will require permission to enroll. To obtain permission, please email to with an unofficial transcript and a brief statement describing why you want to take the course, what you bring to the course, and what project you wish to work on. Students taking the course are encouraged to form teams and select research problems before the course begins. NSA promises to provide an updated suggested unclassified problem list later in Summer 2015. Contact Dr. Sherman to explore possible topic ideas.
CMSC-491/691 Special Topics in Computer Science: Cybersecurity Research, Fall 2015, Instructor: Dr. Alan T. Sherman, Credits: 3
Meeting Times and Places: Fridays 1:30-3:30pm (ITE 238), and Wednesdays 11:00-11:50am (MEYR/CHEM 256). Some of the Friday meetings will be held in synchronized distance fashion using WebEx and a telephone bridge.
Working in small groups (ideally three students) under the mentorship of technical clients from government, each student will formulate, carry out, and present original research on current cybersecurity problems of interest to the nation. Clients will provide a list of unclassified research problems, and students may also suggest their own problems. This course will engage students in important challenging cybersecurity problems. Students will learn how to apply research techniques, think clearly about cybersecurity issues, formulate and analyze potential solutions, and communicate their results.
The course will be run in a synchronized distance fashion from special classrooms coordinating with our partner schools (Mississippi State, Purdue, UC Davis, Univ. Alabama Huntsville, Univ. of South Dakota, Northeastern University, Stevens Institute of Technology, UMBC) and our technical clients (from NSA and Sandia National Labs). Research groups will collaborate using an appropriate file-sharing technology (e.g., Purdue’s instance Purr of HUBzero). Support for this course is provided in part by the National Science Foundation under grant 1344369.
Required Work. Working in small teams, each student will carry out an original research project. The main deliverables are a written technical report, poster, and an oral presentation describing the team's new and significant findings (similar in form and length to those from technical research conferences such as USENIX Security). Each student is expected to participate actively in class.
Expected Outcomes. By the end of the course, students will be expected to: (1) be familiar with important current cybersecurity challenges, (2) think clearly about cybersecurity issues, (3) formulate and analyze potential solutions, (4) work cooperatively in groups, and (5) communicate results effectively in a technical report and oral presentation.
Grading Policy. Grades will be assigned as measures of performance on required activities. The project will be evaluated on the basis of scientific merit and effective presentation. The project report will count for 45% of the semester grade. Late work will not be accepted. For more details on the grading policy, including the weight of each required activity, and separate expectations for undergraduate and graduate students, see the separate document on assessment policy.
Prerequisites. Each student must have the ability, background, and motivation to carry out original research in cybersecurity. Students are expected to have completed most of the requirements for admission into the MS or PhD program in computer science at UMBC. Students may come from computer science, computer engineering, or any related technical field (e.g., electrical engineering, information systems, math). Each student is expected to bring significant expertise, interest, and experience in at least one relevant technical area. This course targets primarily MS and PhD students interested in doing research in cybersecurity; qualified undergraduates, MPS (cybersecurity), and special students are also welcome with permission of the instructor. Ideally, each student would have completed each of the core courses (or equivalents) in a computer science major (e.g., architecture, operating systems, algorithms, and networks), and at least one course in security. We recognize, however, that many qualified students will not yet have completed all of these courses. Each student must come with sufficient knowledge and skills to be able to contribute to a successful research team in solving some cybersecurity research problem. For school specific detailed information about prerequisites, see the separate document on prerequisites.
Clients. Each team will interact with a technical client from a participating organization. Partners include National Security Agency (NSA) and Sandia National Labs.