An associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of New Orleans (UNO), Vassil Roussev, has received a two-year, $300,000 grant to offer students cutting-edge training in the field of cybersecurity.
The grant, provided by the National Science Foundation, will allow the university to provide a self-contained cybersecuriy lab. UNO says students will install special software on their laptops that will enable them to download different lab scenarios that the instructor has prepared and they will then try to solve realistic cybersecurity problems.
“This is as close as we can get to preparing students for a real job in cybersecurity short of them actually having the job,” Roussev said. “Companies strongly prefer graduates with hands-on experience, and this technology will allow our students to get professional-type training.”
This grant comes just weeks after the university received a three year, $400,000 grant to develop tools to fight cybercrime in large computing environments, also provided by the National Science Foundation. Additionally, back in April, UNO was awarded a $223,000 another NSF grant to integrate computer science with psychology for the detection and prevention of cybersecurity risk.
The National Science Foundation is an an independent U.S. government agency responsible for promoting science and engineering through research programs and education projects. Their Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace program is competitive, according to UNO; only 10 out of 56 educational proposals received funding.