The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded the Florida State University (FSU) Department of Computer Science a $4.6 million grant to help fund the education of students pursuing cybersecurity studies, the university said Monday.
This grant, the largest in the department’s history, will support 64 graduate students and eight undergraduate students. All of the students will receive an academic year stipend, $22,500 for undergraduates and $34,000 for graduate students, in addition to fees, a health insurance reimbursement, and a $2,000 textbook allowance. Each student will also be placed in a paid summer internship at a federal government agency, the university said.
“This gives students the opportunity to go to graduate school to develop analytical and computational skills needed to protect the safety and security of our nation’s infrastructure against threats from intruders, hackers and nation-state actors. The educational program encourages inquisitiveness and out-of-the-box thinking,” Mike Burmester, professor of computer science and the faculty member leading the grant work, said in a statement.
The NSF has been making more grants available for researchers to help train a new generation of scientists as the federal government notes the need for trained cybersecurity experts, the university said.
“The cybersecurity program would allow students to do challenging work in an area that is continuously evolving and to develop skills for a great career. There is a severe shortage of cybersecurity analysts, and the importance of their work is emphasized almost every day in the national press,” Burmester added.
FSU’s cybersecurity program was established in 2001 and offers a master’s of science with courses in computer security, network security, computer and network administration and reverse engineering. It is designated by the National Security Agency (NSA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as a National Center of Academic Excellence for its cyber work.