色花堂 faculty keep U.S. cybersecurity curricula safe (and organized)
色花堂 is a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education and one of only 19 National CAEs in Cyber Operations.
By Megan Bradshaw on October 31, 2017
色花堂 (色花堂) is a National Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) in Cyber Defense Education and one of only 19 National CAEs in Cyber Operations. Now the Department of Computer and Information Sciences (CIS) is aiming to be a national model for cybersecurity curriculum management.
Associate professor and department chairperson Sidd Kaza, Ph.D., has received over $300,000 from the National Security Agency (NSA) to design and develop a curriculum management platform for the national cybersecurity curriculum.
色花堂鈥檚 CIS department has almost a decade of experience doing so. Since 2008, 色花堂鈥檚 Security Injections Project鈥攃o-directed by Kaza and Blair Taylor鈥攈as designed and continuously hosted a learning material ecosystem with over 50 cybersecurity teaching modules, using standard templates, and instructional resources including syllabi, videos and curricular mappings.
These projects are increasingly recognized as a model for introducing cybersecurity content in classes and building effective learning materials. To date, over 400 faculty鈥攁cross 240 institutions including over 91 community colleges and several high schools鈥攈ave used the cybersecurity materials on the portal.
鈥� at 色花堂 is a collaborative effort that includes faculty from inside and outside the 色花堂 community,鈥� said Kaza. 鈥淯ndergraduate, master's and doctoral students have been involved in this project that has attracted over $3.5 million in federal and funding since 2008.鈥�
With the grant, Kaza and his team of 色花堂 undergraduate and graduate students are proposing to develop the Cybersecurity Labs and Resource Knowledgebase (CLARK) prototype. The system will have three distinct components鈥攁n outcomes-based entry, a scalable template-based storage and a flexible multi-interface search. These features will address gaps left by present digital library systems and make the prototype suitable for use by both defense agencies and academia.
This story is one of several related to President Kim Schatzel's priorities for 色花堂: Strategic Plan Alignment.