Cybercorps Scholarships to Expand Cybersecurity Education

The University of Washington Tacoma will be the West Coast site of a two-university collaboration meant to recruit and train cybersecurity professionals for federal, state, local and tribal governments.

The collaboration, called the Colorado-Washington Security Scholars Program (CWSSP) will be established as part of Cybercorps®: Scholarship for Service (SFS) and funded by the National Science Foundation. UW Tacoma will receive $1.3 million over five years. Dr. Yan Bai, associate professor in the School of Engineering & Technology, is the principal investigator of the NSF SFS grant and will direct the project.

“CWSSP will emphasize teamwork,” said Dr. Bai. “The scholars in the program will connect with cybersecurity professionals in governments throughout the region. We want them to finish the program ready to join the government workforce helping to protect critical national infrastructure important to the economy and national security.”

The program will provide full tuition-and-fees support for up to two years for work at the undergraduate or graduate level. Each scholar will receive an academic-year stipend ($25,000/year for undergraduate students; $34,000/year for graduate students), plus a professional allowance to pay for travel, books, professional certifications, etc.

In return, each scholar agrees to commit to employment after graduation in a position related to cybersecurity. Scholars will agree to work at a federal agency, or an approved state, local, tribal or territorial government or federally-funded research center for a period equal to the length of the scholarship received.

The UW Tacoma site will support 10 scholars pursuing the Master of Cybersecurity & Leadership (MCL) degree; and four scholars getting a B.S. in Information Technology with the Information Assurance and Security option.

The University of Colorado Colorado Springs is the other half of the CWSSP collaboration. Through an articulation agreement, UW Tacoma MCL students who want to continue their studies can enter directly into the UCCS PhD in Security.

More information about the CWSSP program can be found here, or contact Dr. Yan Bai at yanb@uw.edu.