By Allison Larrimore, Sep.17, 2024
Cal Poly Pomona received a $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation Hispanic Serving Institution to establish a student-run security operations center, increasing the university’s network protection and advancing cybersecurity research and education on campus.
The NSF HSI Program aims to diversify and enhance the quality of STEM education as well as increase graduation rates for undergraduate students, as described on the program’s website.
Officially titled the Hispanic Serving Institutions: Enriching Learning, Programs and Student Experiences solicitation, it supports projects that purposely take students’ existing knowledge as well as any challenges they face into account. The purpose is to create a suitable and effective learning environment according to their needs.
For Olukemi Sawyerr, the associate vice president of the Office of Academic Innovation and the principal investigator of this project, the recognition and support of a federal agency for CPP’s programs feels validating. She links the new hands-on opportunities the grant will offer students to the university’s motto, “learn by doing.”
Indira Guzman, an assistant professor in the computer information systems department, also recognizes the significance this grant could have for students and their ability to thrive in a growing field.
“Any grant that is from the National Science Foundation has a lot of potential for impact,” said Guzman. “There’s a lot that needs to be done at the organizational level with (cybersecurity) policies and how people will use it, but also at the state level and the national level. We expect that this field is going to grow more and more, and we have to be ready for that.”
According to Sawyerr, 90% of the grant money will be used to establish a security operations center, where students will have hands-on experience with cybersecurity operations and learn to work with the technology in real-world situations. The new equipment will be available to students in the computer science, computer engineering and computer information systems departments.
Sawyerr values the opportunity for students to have access to updated technology as society continues to progress and use more advanced systems.
“The world around us is constantly changing,” said Sawyerr. “My goal, what I hope to get is that we will have highly-prepared students that are transitioning into professional careers in cybersecurity.”
Mohammad Husain, a professor in the computer science department, emphasized students having access to infrastructure like those used in the professional world, rather than using a virtual program like most universities.
“When you teach someone something using a virtual system on the cloud, many times you don’t learn about the real-life issues when you are dealing with those systems as a live system,” said Husain, using a power outage as an example of one of those problems. “Someone can just walk in and then unplug one of the machines, so I think some of those practical aspects that you cannot learn from the virtual environment, the students will actually learn those things.”
In an ever-evolving industry, Guzman shared her main concern with the current state of internet and cybersecurity technologies is privacy, particularly the recent controversies regarding graphic deepfake videos of women created using artificial intelligence programs.
“The internet was created to allow communications between people, but security was not something that was in mind,” said Guzman. “There’s just a lot going on where technology is being used for other purposes, so it’s us as humans who need to implement controls, politics and awareness to use technology ethically. That’s why to control, to prevent it, we need more cybersecurity education and action.”
Sawyerr additionally expressed worry for the global shortage in the cybersecurity workforce, but she hopes the grant, as well as CPP’s status as a Center of Excellence by the National Security Agency, will help fill the gap as more students graduate with professional experience using the latest technology and raise awareness for network security.
Feature image courtesy of Allison Larrimore