NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: April 4, 2013
CONTACT: Sally Post, sally.post@ttu.edu
(806) 742-3905
Texas Tech, Angelo State Receive NSF Cybersecurity Grant
Texas Tech University and Angelo State University have received a $385,000 two-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to address the nation’s cybersecurity workforce needs.
With the grant the two universities will develop a two-year professional development program for community and private college faculty. About 30 participants will participate in a one-week workshop Aug. 12-16 on the Texas Tech campus. Participants in the 2013 Summer Cybersecurity Workshop will receive a $2,000 honorarium to cover housing and travel to Lubbock.
“By giving faculty at the region’s community and private colleges more training, we hope to increase the knowledge that is passed on to students and better prepare them for the job market,” said Akbar Namin, assistant professor in Texas Tech’s Department of Computer Science and principal investigator on the NSF grant.
Namin, who also is part of Texas Tech’s Center for the Science and Engineering of Cyber Security, reached out to the Center for Security Studies at Angelo State University, another component of the Texas Tech University System, to partner on the project.
“Dr. Namin’s proposal was a great fit for us,” said Robert Ehlers, director of the Angelo State center. “Texas Tech’s computer science department is really skilled on the technical side. We are focused on the aggregate effects of cyber-attacks and cyber-espionage and how they affect the security and prosperity of the United States.”
The project is designed to give community college faculty easy access to the latest cybersecurity information so that students can be better prepared for a growing job market.
It’s estimated there may be hundreds of thousands of jobs going unfilled because of a lack of personnel who have a solid, basic knowledge of cybersecurity.
“Our goal is to give community and private college faculty the tools to teach to better transfer knowledge to their students,” said Namin. “We want to raise awareness that cybersecurity is important to the future of our country, that it needs to be emphasized in their programs.”
For more information on the Summer Cyber Security Workshops, see http://www.depts.ttu.edu/cs/research/csecs/workshop/.
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CONTACT: Akbar Namin, assistant professor, Department of Computer Science, Whitacre College of Engineering, Texas Tech University, (806)742-3527, or akbar.namin@ttu.edu.
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