Continuation of the University of Idaho SFS Program 2010
Grant
Overview
abstract
The University of Idaho (UofI) continues its participation in the Scholarship for Service (SFS) program. The driving motive behind this project is the continued need to train Information Assurance (IA) professionals for entry into the federal workforce. By grouping students from multiple disciplines into the same labs and seminars the UofI SFS program provides a diversity and synergy that enables participants to appreciate the multifaceted aspects of IA, including perspectives from software, hardware, and management. The purpose of this project is predominately educational rather than research, so the project activities lie mostly in the preparation of students to enter the IA workforce. In the UofI SFS program the IA scholars have hands-on laboratory experiences with a variety of network configurations including reconfigurable attack-defend scenarios, real-time embedded systems, and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems. Through these laboratories the IA scholars gain the knowledge and insights that enable them to design and implement more secure and survivable systems. Ultimately, this program is contributing to both improving society and providing benefits to a diverse student body. For society we would have more stable information infrastructures when they are designed and operated by individuals with an understanding of information assurance. The same is true for government infrastructures and policy makers. This interdisciplinary program helps scholars learn to appreciate the interconnectedness of computer networking, computer devices, audit logging and audit trails, and attracts women and minorities to the UofI, an EPSCOR school.
