POTSDAM — The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a nearly $400,000 grant to four professors at Clarkson University to incorporate cybersecurity into their computing classes.

The funding will help them “create and integrate” identity and access management (IAM)-themed, project-based learning (PBL) curriculum into existing computer-science and software engineering-related curricula, the university said in its Sept. 14 announcement.

This project is under the direction of Daqing Hou, professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of software engineering; Jeanna Matthews, professor of computer science; Jan DeWaters, associate professor in the Institute for STEM Education; and Faraz Hussain, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering. 

The Clarkson team will collaborate with researchers from the University of Texas at San Antonio, the school noted.

Project-based learning (PBL) and other active learning practices have been shown to increase student motivation and engagement, raise examination performance, and reduce failure rates, according to Clarkson.

Students will work on “authentic, real-world” problems similar to what they will encounter on the job, the university said. This approach will broadly expand cybersecurity education to all computing-related students, not only those enrolled in dedicated cybersecurity programs. 

The project also seeks to broaden participation in computing disciplines. Ultimately, it will improve student-learning outcomes, including personal competencies, mastery of cybersecurity content, and higher-order thinking skills, Clarkson contends.

The project will design and develop a set of ready-to-use IAM-themed software course projects, along with supporting course modules and active learning activities, which will enable course instructors to assign and support take-home PBL projects. 

At least 10 faculty members from multiple institutions will use the developed course materials in their classrooms, impacting more than 1,000 students, Clarkson said. 

A pilot study will assess the promise of the developed projects in improving student-learning outcomes. 

Clarkson said it will disseminate the overall framework and materials developed through websites, publications in conference proceedings and journals, and workshops.       

MARCY, N.Y. — A SUNY Polytechnic Institute professor is leading a research project to boost cybersecurity after being awarded the largest single-investigator contract award in SUNY Poly’s Marcy campus history. 

Hisham A. Kholidy, an associate professor and chair of the Network and Computer Security (Cybersecurity) Department, was awarded a nearly $1.1 million contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). The three-year project seeks to help address the need for an advanced security system that can identify, assess, and protect against attacks across the 5G open architecture in a timely and accurate way without human intervention.

“This project, led by Dr. Kholidy, is a strong example of how SUNY Poly’s growing reputation as New York state’s premier public polytechnic is backed by our wide-ranging academic and research pursuits, including as a leader in cybersecurity research and applications nationwide,” SUNY Poly Officer-in-Charge Andrew Russell contended in an Aug. 7 news release.

With 5G expected to play an important role in global economic growth and technological development, the Department of Defense (DoD) has identified 5G security as a critical area, Kholidy notes. The proposed research investigates ways to protect 5G open networks, meet resilience requirements, and minimize damage from attacks.

“The DoD has a vital interest in advancing 5G-to-NextG wireless technologies and concept demonstrations,” AFRL Senior Scientist Andrew Karam said. “These efforts represent our continuing investments via public- and private-sector collaboration on research and development for critical 5G technology enablers necessary to realize high performance, security, and resilient network operations for the warfighter.”

The project will support a post-doctoral student and two research assistants assisted by Kholidy. The project will also educate and involve students with interdisciplinary skills, including underrepresented minority students through integrating projects covering information science, communication, cybersecurity, and autonomic computing, as well as developing a new cybersecurity course and a simulated 5G security testbed network.

Key contributions of this project include: improving the current 5G security testbed that was developed in collaboration with AFRL engineers to support the 5G open architecture network. This network is to become the first-of-its-kind “open 5G-federated testbed” supporting 5G multi-vendor and commercial service providers. This will help them develop innovative cybersecurity solutions and datasets with respect to this emerging global architecture, SUNY Poly said. Such solutions and datasets will open the door for researchers to improve this new architecture. The project will also develop an intelligent vulnerability assessment approach to assess the security level of the new architecture. In addition, it will seek to develop a smart-network slice provisioning framework to help orchestrate and manage 5G slices among multi-vendor and commercial-service providers. The 5G network slices are defined as network configuration that allows multiple networks to be created on top of a common 5G physical infrastructure.

SUNY Poly students are already actively involved in AFRL activities established by Kholidy. Through this project, he will have the option of dedicating lecture time on the testbeds by logging in remotely and showing practical scenarios to his students, per the release. This project will allow him to take these activities to the next level by developing interdisciplinary projects, in which graduate and undergraduate students will be paired together, the university said. Graduate students would be able to assist undergraduates in obtaining a realistic understanding of graduate education and research methodologies. 

Outreach activities targeting local schools that offer cybersecurity programs are also part of the project’s plans, as is expanding existing SUNY Poly outreach programs to enhance cybersecurity awareness among high-school students in Oneida County, the release stated.

Along with degrees in technology including cybersecurity, SUNY Poly also offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in professional studies including business and communication, and arts and sciences such as mathematics, game design, and humanities.