Restricted Research - Award List, Note/Discussion Page
Fiscal Year: 2023
1882 The University of Texas at El Paso (143770)
Principal Investigator: Salamah,Salamah
Total Amount of Contract, Award, or Gift (Annual before 2011): $ 190,359
Exceeds $250,000 (Is it flagged?): No
Start and End Dates: 8/1/22 - 7/31/26
Restricted Research: YES
Academic Discipline: Computer Science
Department, Center, School, or Institute: Computer Science
Title of Contract, Award, or Gift: Supplement: CyberCorps Scholarship for Service (Renewal): Advancing a Successful Cybersecurity Education and Workforce Development Program
Name of Granting or Contracting Agency/Entity:
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
CFDA Link: NSF
47.076
Program Title:
Education and Human Resources
CFDA Linked: Education and Human Resources
Note:
Preparing El Paso Area High School Teams for CyberPatriot Competitions CyberPatriot is the Air Force Association's National Youth Cyber Education Program, which was created to motivate students toward careers in cybersecurity and other STEM disciplines. In 2022 there were only four CyberPatriot teams coming from El Paso high schools. In October, 2021, PI Salamah and the Computer Science Department hosted one-day meetings with AFA to discuss ways to enhance El Paso's representation in the CyberPatriot competition. As part of the meetings, the group met with HS principals, superintendents, teachers, and CyberPatriot coaches. Lack of support for team mentors was identified as the major reason for the small number of teams participating in the CyberPatriot competition. While UTEP's CS department has established strong collaborations with national defense and intelligence entities, academia, and national labs to develop and deliver cybersecurity training material to students and professionals across the region, those efforts lacked focus on the K-12 population. As such, we request funds to train UTEP CS students to become mentors for 100 teams from different El Paso high schools, with a focus on those coming from economically-challenged areas. To develop the training, PI Salamah will work with current CS partners in the area of cybersecurity. The funds are requested to support two current CS graduate students in summer 2022 to develop training material for the future high school mentors. In addition, we plan to fund a total of 25 CS undergraduate students to become CyberSecurity Mentors. Each undergraduate mentor, will act as the mentor for four different high school team. The project team will work with the El Paso Independent School, Canutillo, Clint, Socorro, and Esleta school districts to reach out to schools within the different districts with the goal of assembling the teams.
Discussion: No discussion notes