Massimiliano Albanese, Associate Professor, Information Sciences and Technology; Associate Chair for Research, School of Computing; College of Engineering and Computing (CEC), received funding for: “DoD Cyber Scholarship Grant Program.”
George Mason will continue administering its Cybersecurity Scholarship Program during the 2024-2025 academic year, under the Department of Defense (DoD) Cyber Service Academy (CSA) program, formerly known as the DoD Cybersecurity Scholarship Program (CySP).
The objective of the program is to improve the enrollment, retention, and graduation of students, at both the undergraduate and graduate level, pursuing cybersecurity-related academic programs, with concentrations in cyber security, offered by George Mason’s Department of Information Sciences and Technology and CEC.
Albanese received $87,833 from the U.S. Department of Defense for this award, bringing the total received for this program since 2017 to more than $1M. Funding began in Aug. 2024 and will end in Aug. 2025.
Funding for this program is only available to institutions designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity (NCAE-C). George Mason University is a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity and an active member of the CAE in Cybersecurity Community. It is one of the National Security Agency’s original Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education (CAE-IAE), later rebranded as CAE in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD). In 2008, National Security Agency established a new designation, the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Research (CAE-R), later rebranded as CAE in Cyber Research, a designation that Mason earned for the cutting-edge research being conducted at the Center for Secure Information Systems (CSIS). George Mason is designated for CAE-CD through 2027 and CAE-R through 2028.
The NCAE-C validated cybersecurity Programs of Study (PoS) offered by George Mason are the BS in Information Technology (BS IT) with a concentration in Cyber Security and the MS in Applied Information Technology (BS IT) with a concentration in Cyber Security. Both programs are offered by the Department of Information Sciences and Technology (IST).
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