Dr. Jiawei Yuan, associate professor of computer and information science, was recently awarded a $240K grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to promote cybersecurity education.
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Cybersecurity is one of the fastest-growing fields nationwide. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of information security analyst jobs is expected to increase by 35% between 2021-2031, making it one of the most in-demand careers in the U.S.
Meeting the demand for a qualified cybersecurity workforce requires teaching both technical cybersecurity skills and developing a cybersecurity mindset. Dr. Jiawei Yuan, associate professor of computer and information science in the College of Engineering has received a $240K grant from the NSF for his project titled, "Collaborative Research: Building Cybersecurity Mindset through Continuous Cross-module Learning," which aims to address this growing need. This award comes from the NSF's Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) initiative, aimed at improving the effectiveness of STEM education for all students.
The goal of Dr. Yuan's project is to promote cybersecurity education for computer science students and help them build a cybersecurity mindset by exploring ways to further integrate cybersecurity into existing coursework. The project intends to utilize the "build it, break it, and fix it" concept, wherein students build applications based on non-cybersecurity course content, then break the applications by discovering and exploiting vulnerabilities, then fix the applications using appropriate cybersecurity practices. This project also intends to tailor and transform learning modules and tools to support K-12 outreach via webinars, summer camps, and online repositories.