Information Trust Institute University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Introduction:

The Information Trust Institute (ITI) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is an interdisciplinary research center addressing all aspects of information trust. It offers a range of valuable educational resources, including the NSA Center for Information Assurance Education and Research. To further its mission, it is now introducing a new scholarship program to enable more undergraduate students to pursue degrees in Information Assurance (IA) and computer security. The new program is called the Illinois Cyber Security Scholars Program (ICSSP).

ICSSP scholarships will cover tuition, room and board, books, and some travel for the last two years of study for a bachelor's degree. In addition, students will receive an annual stipend.

Students will be engaged in team-based projects -- based on specific topics, such as the power grid, avionics systems, and enterprise computing -- in which they build example applications using the latest computer security techniques. Upon graduation, scholarship recipients must work for a Federal government agency in an IA position for two years. This scholarship program is helping to address the nation's need for qualified information technology professionals working in government agencies. Minority students and two-year college transfer students are encouraged to participate.

Eligibility Requirements:

To be eligible for consideration for an ICSSP scholarship, you must be

• A United States citizen, and
• A full-time student within two years of graduation in a coherent formal program at Illinois that is focused on computer security or information assurance. (After admission to Illinois, incoming transfer students are also eligible, including students from 2-year colleges.)

Students selected for scholarships must meet selection criteria for Federal employment. In addition, internship placements and final job placements may require security clearances. Scholarship recipients may therefore be required to undergo the background investigation required to obtain such clearances.

More Information about the Program:

ICSSP is a University of Illinois program supported by the NSF Federal Cyber Service Scholarship for Service (SFS) program. ICSSP is directed by Prof. Roy H. Campbell of the Department of Computer Science, along with Dr. Masooda Bashir of the Information Trust Institute and Prof. William H. Sanders of the Information Trust Institute, the Coordinated Science Laboratory, and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. For more details on SFS, including the purpose of the program, eligibility requirements, scholarship benefits, and employment obligations, see the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's page of frequently asked student questions. For more comprehensive information, see the SFS Student Toolkit that has been provided by the SFS Program Office.

Benefits to ICSSP Participants:

For a 2-year period, selected students will receive the following benefits:

• Tuition.
• A stipend to support room & board.
• Funding for travel needed to participate in ICSSP activities, such as relevant workshops and seminars and an annual job fair that all participating students are required to attend.
• Funding towards the cost of textbooks and equipment needed for success in the program.
• Internships and mentoring in a Federal Government and/or National Laboratory setting. Students will be required to participate in an internship between the third and fourth years of their undergraduate studies. (You will receive assistance in finding an internship position.)
• Guidance from an ITI/ICSSP faculty advisor, identified through the ICSSP program, who can act as a mentor in the Information Assurance field. Students and advisors will periodically have one-on-one meetings. (The ICSSP faculty advisors will not replace students' regular academic advisors, but will offer supplementary guidance.)

Curriculum Requirements:

You can participate in ICSSP through either of two programs. Students pursuing B.S. degrees from the Department of Computer Science and students pursuing B.S. degrees from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering will follow different course sequences, as shown below. The different sequences simply reflect the degree requirements of the two departments, except that ICSSP also specifies some of the courses you must take in fulfilling departmental "technical elective" requirements.

In other words, participating in ICSSP will not oblige you to take additional hours of coursework beyond the existing program requirements for your degree. The ICSSP requirements were designed to fit into your allotted technical elective sequence.

SPECIAL NOTE: non-CE students in ECE will be eligible for participation in this program as well. Details on their course requirements are still in development. Please contact Dr. Masooda Bashir (below) if you want more information.

A summary of the course requirements for CS and ECE students is shown in the below table. More specifically, the rationale for the requirements is as follows:

1. Satisfy the core requirements of the Bachelor of Science curriculum in either Computer Science or Computer Engineering.
2. Take core courses in security.
   1. CS 210: Ethical and Professional Issues (2 hours) or ECE 316: Engineering Ethics (3 hours).
   2. CS 461/ECE 422: Computer Security I.
   3. CS 463/ECE 424: Computer Security II.
   4. CS 460/ECE 419: Security Laboratory.
   5. CS 491/ECE 398: Information Assurance and Trust Seminar.
3. Take two or more courses at the 300 or 400 level in an area of concentration related to computer security. You may select two courses from the concentration areas listed below or another concentration that is approved by your ITI advisor.
   1. Software Engineering
      1. CS 427: Software Engineering I.
      2. CS 428: Software Engineering II.
   2. Enterprise Data Systems
      1. CS 411: Database Systems.
      2. CS 412: Introduction to Data Mining.
   3. Computer Networks
      1. ECE 439/CS 439: Wireless Networks.
      2. ECE 428/CS 425: Distributed Systems.
      3. ECE 438/CS 438: Communication Networks.
4. Complete a summer internship in a Government organization, such as a National Laboratory, computing facility, the National Security Agency, the Department of Defense, or the National Standards Institute.
5. Complete a Senior Project in the area of security working in collaboration with an advisor from the Information Trust Institute.
   1. In Computer Science, the requirements to complete a senior project may include either a combination of a thesis (CS 499) and a project course (CS 494) or two project courses (CS 492 and CS 494).
   2. In Computer Engineering, the requirements to complete a senior project may be completed by ECE 445, the Senior Design Project Laboratory.

SUMMARY:

Transfer students must gain admittance to the University of Illinois before applying to the ICSSP program. They must provide a transcript of their past coursework to ICSSP so that ICSSP can evaluate it and determine what non-UI courses can be accepted as substitutes for the normally required courses.

Please note that some modifications to the required course sequences may be possible, if your academic background makes it difficult or inappropriate for you to follow all of the stated requirements. Your ICSSP faculty advisor can work with you to find solutions.

How to Apply:

An online application system is now available. For scholarships starting with Fall 2010, please apply by the deadline of March 19, 2010.

If You Have Questions:

Contact Dr. Masooda Bashir (mnb AT iti.illinois.edu) if you have any questions!

Supporting Agencies: