Scholarship season is approaching: Computer Science & Engineering majors minoring in Cybersecurity have until Jan. 15, 2023, to apply for a $25,000 scholarship offered through the National Science Foundation CyberCorps Scholarship for Service program. An allowance and tuition expenses also are included.

A workshop for those interested is from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 18 in the William Pennington Engineering Building. RSVP by Nov. 15 to sfs@unr.edu.

This scholarship program continues to grow in importance as the need for professionally trained cybersecurity workforce expands with the amount of cyberspace threats.

“Cyber-crime costs the global economy significantly every year and is projected to reach $10.5 trillion annually by 2025,” Shamik Sengupta, executive director of the University’s Cybersecurity Center and a professor in the College of Engineering, said. “Such cyberthreats have expanded to the health care, energy and financial sectors as well. Recently, we are also seeing evolving exploits such as ‘REvil/Sodinokibi,’ ‘Industroyer’ or ‘Crash Override,’ which are starting to target critical cyber-physical infrastructures and other government units.”

The Cybersecurity Center received a $3.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation earlier this year to offer the program. It was the first in Nevada to be awarded this grant, and one of eight in the country to receive it in 2022.

Since 2014, when the Cybersecurity Center was formed, it has grown to include minor degrees, a graduate certificate and a graduate program that includes a robust cross-section of colleges and departments at the University. The center has strived to excellence in the research it does and it has done community outreach to local schools.

“As a result of that, in 2020, UNR’s Computer Science and Engineering Major with a Minor in Cybersecurity degree program has earned the highly prestigious Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD) designation from the NSA and the DHS,” Sengupta said.

In its first year running the NSF CyberCorps Scholarship for Service (SFS) program two students were scholarship recipients. Over the next four years, another 21 students will be awarded scholarships. Students awarded the scholarship receive $25,000 per year, a $6,000 allowance and $13,000 towards tuition expenses. To take steps toward growing a diverse cybersecurity workforce, the NFS grant is used to provide this scholarship. When students accept the SFS scholarship they are agreeing to work at a government cybersecurity job in the students’ chosen cybersecurity field for a length of time equal to years they received the scholarship for.