Program Objectives
Objective: Produce graduates with knowledge of cybersecurity issues and mechanisms and the technical expertise to design and build secure information systems in the future.
Results: GW CyberCorps students graduate with at least 24 hours of cybersecurity course work, including 12 hours of GW CyberCorps' Signature Seminar course.
Objective: Provide graduates with a global societal and ethical context within which to apply their technical expertise.
Results: The Signature Seminar, a required course for CyberCorps students, runs throughout the scholars' two-year program, includes speakers on issues such as privacy, intellectual property, computer crime, and information warfare, and provides numerous opportunities to engage the speakers in informal discussions of the efficacy of the technological armada of security and information assurance tools utilized in response to these issues.
Objective: Provide graduates with practical experience working within the culture of the federal government.
Results: All students who have graduated from the program to date also participated, during the summer, in paid internships at federal government agencies, national laboratories, or Federally Funded Research and Development Centers.
Objective: Provide graduates with opportunities to develop and demonstrate their ability to write and speak for both technical and non-technical audiences.
Results: During weekly "Seminar" meetings, students present on current attacks, vulnerabilities, and mitigation techniques to their peers, visiting speakers, and course instructors. Students also prepare written system security plans for their instructor and present these to their peers.
Objective: Expand the educational opportunities for US citizens who are traditionally underrepresented populations in the computer field.
Results: We are proud of our record on diversity in cybersecurity. Current statistics by gender and ethnicity in this program are available here.
Objective: Establish a peer and near-peer mentoring network among prospective CyberCorps students, current CyberCorps students, and CyberCorps alumni who have already completed the program and gone on to work for the federal government.
Results: We have found that an informal network starting with assignment of "buddies" to first-year CyberCorps students and including our SFS and CySP alumni has been most effective in mentoring students in the program.