The mission of the collaborative lab is to broaden the participation of students from underrepresented groups in Cyber Security education and research. Cyber Security is an increasingly important part of computer science and modern societies; however, large segments of our population remain underrepresented in Cyber Security research and related professions. Women, African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and persons with disabilities all participate in Cyber Security at very low rates.
Such low participation not only deprives individuals of these groups paths to creative and lucrative careers, but it also deprives our nation of much-needed talents in Cyber Security. Every group of our people deserves the fair opportunity to participate in advancing the cyber defense technology, which is closely related to our everyday computing tasks, economy and homeland security, and the contributions of all segments of society will be needed if we are to maintain our nation's competitiveness in IT innovation.
To that end, our strategy is to establish in-depth collaborations with multiple historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), and develop concrete, impactful, and sustainable activities that broadens the participation of students from underrepresented groups and promote the Cyber Security education in HBCUs. The examples of such activities include
- Summer Internships: Starting in 2019, we set up Four summer internship positions for students for underrepresented groups. We plan to increase the number 20%~30% every year and our long-term goal is to reach Ten.
- Research Projects: In addition to summer internships, we engage students from HBCUs in our regular research activities during springs and falls.
- Course Resources: We share our course materials, such as course designs, slides and labs, with faculty members of HBCUs to promote Cyber Security education.
- CTF Teams: To increase their interest in Cyber Security, we are to create one or more CTF (Capture the Flag) teams that involve women students in GMU and students from HBCUs. We plan to participate in regional and national CTF contests in Cyber Security.
- Hackathons: We are to organize hackathons that encourage students from HBCUs and our students to learn about Cyber attacks and defenses.
Our long-term goal is to develop this lab into a cross-state cross-campus institute, which provides a platform for students from underrepresented groups in the Southeast Region to obtain resources and opportunities in oder to participate in Cyber Security careers and pursuits.
Faculty
Students
