NSF Continues Funding NJIT's Future Defenders of Government Computing
NJIT this month won its second grant from the National Science Foundation's CyberCorps Scholarship for Service program, in which students studying toward master's degrees receive up to three years of free tuition and generous stipends, in exchange for working at government cybersecurity jobs after graduation.
During the first grant, which provided $4 million from 2016-2021, Ying Wu College of Computing accepted 33 students through its Secure Computing Initiative. All of them landed jobs protecting government computer systems in a range of local, state and federal organizations, including several in defense and intelligence roles. Diversity was an important factor, as 27% of students were female, 18% African-American and 12% Hispanic or Latin.
The new grant provides $4.6 million from now through summer 2026. There's a goal to place 80% of the students in executive federal positions, explained Professor Vincent Oria, who serves as a principal investigator for the grant, along with professors Cristian Borcea, Reza Curtmola and Ali Mili.
"We showed that we can do better," Oria said. "The bulk of the money is to recruit excellent students, train them and place them mostly in the executive branch of the government."
The program is very competitive. Each year, only about five to eight high-performing students are selected from pools of 20-30 who apply, Oria said. Many are also members of NJIT's Albert Dorman Honors College. In the original contract, 18% of students received their undergraduate degrees from schools other than NJIT and 12% came from outside New Jersey.
"We have to give [students] more ammunition for them to fight for jobs. So they are all involved in research, and in addition we give them practical cases of cyber attacks and data breaches," Oria added. Groups of students examine a hack, work to understand how it happened and evaluate various responses to it, he explained. Students attend biweekly meetings, write reports and are required to take internships every summer.
Most alumni work in federal positions. CyberCorps alumna Jennifer Benedict, who received her M.S. in cybersecurity and privacy in 2019, opted for a New Jersey position as a security analyst for the state Motor Vehicle Commission.
Benedict came to NJIT in 2018 after receiving a B.S. in computer science from Drew University. The first thing she noticed is that Ying Wu faculty were especially interested in hands-on learning, citing NJIT adjunct professor Roberto Rubino as her favorite example.
Benedict said she hadn't considered a career in government, but found that she enjoys it, given the value of the data she protects such as driver's license numbers and automobile registration data.
"I work on the information security team. We basically handle anything in security, from doing monitoring, doing scans on machines and our systems, coordinating with other state agencies that also help out with our infrastructure and things like that. We do a lot of project reviews to give our perspective from the security point of view," she explained. "We hold everyone's personal information. Anything that could personally ID you, we have it. So we have a huge responsibility to basically everyone in the state."
"I truly feel like I got lucky coming out of school and landing the job that I did," Benedict said. For students considering the CyberCorps program or who want to work in government, "Make sure you're okay with that and possibly relocating, and dedicating a few years of your life. If you're currently in the program, I would say leverage the resources you have. Leverage the students around you and the alumni."
"One of the things about security is, it's one of those jobs where you're all in. A lot of people are intimidated by that. It's a lot of responsibility [but] because it's the government, there's work/life balance … It's a really great opportunity … Without the program I would never have been able to get to this level."
