The National Security Agency has awarded two UB students federal scholarships to train as specialists in the process of detecting cyber-terrorists and hackers.
Alexander Eisen and Melissa Thomas, graduate students in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, were among 30 students nationwide to receive NSA's Information Assurance Scholarship.
The scholarship, which provides a $15,000 annual stipend, will cover the cost of tuition as well as lab expenses and equipment.
The money UB will receive for these scholarships will go towards building infrastructure, labs, security, new courses and faculty, said Shambu Upadhyaya, director for the Center of Excellence in Information Systems Assurance Research and Education and associate professor of Computer Science and Engineering.
"This is the second year (the NSA is) awarding this scholarship," Upadhyaya said. "It started out as a pilot program, and we expect it to grow. Hopefully next year, they will give out much more than that."
Receiving this scholarship and recognition is a great accomplishment and was anything but easy, said Upadhyaya.
The process included a 15-page proposal written by the center director and two or three essays based on the students' views and knowledge of Internet security and international efforts. According to Thomas, the entire process took approximately three months.
"It was a stressful application process - a lot of paperwork," said Thomas. "I had to write a separate statement evaluated by the university and the human resources."
To qualify for this scholarship, the students had to have a 3.0 GPA or higher, have training in security during their undergraduate careers and have attended security research meetings at UB.
"When writing the proposal, I had to explain what kind of program we have here, make sure we have the right people," Upadhyaya said. "It demands (the) right preparation and level; we look at what courses they took and how they performed in these courses."
"I'm very thankful for UB professors, like Dr. Shambhu Upadhyaya, who seized this opportunity and wrote a successful grant for UB's Center of Excellence in Information Assurance, and I'm also thankful that our government realizes the importance of funding the academic community and encouraging research in this vital area," said Eisen. "I'm very proud to have the opportunity to contribute to the national anti-cyber terrorism effort."
Thomas and Eisen will intern at federal agencies over the summer as part of the agreement, and after they graduate, they have to work for the government for an amount of time equal to the years in which their research was funded.
"If they were funded for two years, they have to work for two years," said Upadhyaya.
Thomas will intern next summer with the Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River, Md., and Eisen will intern at the Defense Information Systems Agency in Arlington, Va., where he will be able to gain experience with information assurance, global combat-support systems and electronic commerce.
Eisen, who is in his fourth year at UB in a BS/MS computer science degree program, said that information assurance is used to secure and maintain the integrity of critical data that is to be kept protected from unauthorized parties.
"That is just the goal of this IA Scholarship program - to create experts in the broad field of computer security that can contribute to the national cyber terrorism-fighting effort of keeping our computers and vital information on them safe," said Eisen.
