The Computer Science Department has received $231,000 from the National Science Foundation for the Cyber Catch Scholarship Program, to benefit over 55 students.
The program will award 40 scholarships to students who haven't decided on a major but show an interest in computer science with a concentration in information assurance. The program also will award funds to 16 students transferring from area community colleges into the information assurance concentration.
The project will receive $1.1 million over five years.
Computer science professor Rose Shumba wrote the grant proposal and is leading the project along with computer science professor William Oblitey and criminology professor Jennifer Gossett.
IUP was one of the first universities in the United States to support an academic program in information assurance and is one of seven institutions in Pennsylvania and fewer than 100 in the nation selected as a national Center for Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.
The Information Assurance Program blends the disciplines of criminology and computer science and addresses operations that protect and defend information and information systems by ensuring availability, integrity, authentication, confidentiality and nonrepudiation.