UB awarded $3.4 million for expanded cybersecurity training program

UB received a $3.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to continue CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service (SFS), a program aimed at training the next generation of cybersecurity experts.

“Cybersecurity is the need of the hour,” says Shambhu Upadhyaya, principal investigator on the grant and professor in UB’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering. “We are trying to make an impact at UB by engaging in outreach activities in addition to doing research.”

The grant will provide funding for UB’s Center of Excellence in Information Systems Assurance Research and Education (CEISARE) — a designated National Center of Excellence in cybersecurity education and cybersecurity research — to graduate 24 cybersecurity specialists over the next five years.

For the first time since receiving the CyberCorps SFS grant in 2008, CEISARE will include students enrolled in technical and managerial disciplines in undergraduate programs, in addition to those enrolled in master’s degree and doctoral programs. The plan is to train eight undergraduate and 16 graduate students, but this may change depending on availability, eligibility and need.

“The current SFS program will recruit two undergrads and four grads each year for the next four years. The School of Management typically receives two or three of these awards per year,” says Lawrence Sanders, co-principal investigator on the project and professor of management science and systems in the UB School of Management Sanders.

“We work very closely with professor Upadhyaya to recruit students for the scholarship. We also have regular meetings with all of the students and assist in mentoring students during their tenure in the SFS program,” Sanders says.

CEISARE has received over $10 million to run the CyberCorps program since 2008. The program also helped UB faculty members launch an MS in Engineering Science with a focus on cybersecurity, and a cybersecurity minor for undergraduates. The program has graduated over 45 scholars who work for the FBI, CIA, Department of Homeland Security, National Security Agency, Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Inspector General and several other agencies.