UMBC receives $2.5M National Science Foundation grant for cybersecurity studies

The University of Maryland Baltimore County was awarded $2.5 million in grant funding from the National Science Foundation. The money will be doled out over five years and provide scholarships for 22 students studying information assurance and cybersecurity at UMBC.
Scholars will be plucked from UMBC’s undergraduate, graduate and professional studies program, and each will receive yearly stipends worth $8,000 to $12,000 in addition to full-ride scholarships.
“Our goal is to encourage students to pursue cybersecurity education at UMBC and then move into careers that can build upon their education,” said Rick Forno, the graduate program director for cybersecurity at UMBC, in a press release.

The scholarships themselves are a component of the Federal Cyber Service’s Scholarships for Service program, which is “designed to increase and strengthen the cadre of federal information assurance professionals that protect the government’s critical information infrastructure.” This means that UMBC students receiving one of these 22 scholarships will be “required to intern at a federal organization. After graduation, scholars must serve at a federal agency in an information assurance position for one to two years, depending on their level of support.”
Towson University and Harford Community College also received National Science Foundation funding for Scholarships for Service initiatives, reports the Baltimore Business Journal:

Towson University will receive a total of $2.09 million. In the first year of the grant, $681,377 will go toward funding two-year scholarships for up to 30 undergraduate computer science students in the security track. Harford Community College will receive $74,000 to put toward its work with the Regional Cybersecurity Education Initiative.