ROTC Cybersecurity Training at the University of Notre Dame
Abstract
The United States National Cyber Strategy and National Security Strategy outline four key pillars within which the necessity for improvement in cybersecurity capabilities is repeatedly cited. In recognition of this national priority the US Navy has developed a framework for naval research that includes Information, Cyber and Spectrum Superiority as a major focus area of their integrated research portfolio. For the US Navy and broader DoD community to meet thesecybersecurity research objectives, they must support the professional development of engineers, scientists and technical managers. Our proposed project will help meet that challenge by advancing the cybersecurity skill sets of Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) undergraduate students through involvement in cutting edge research at the University of Notre Dame (UND).The UND Navy ROTC, Army ROTC and Air Force ROTC programs are currently developing midshipmen and cadets respectively, which provides a pool of over 200 potential student participants. We have worked closely with the Commanders of each unit to plan for not only the involvement of a select student subset, but also for those select students to share their cybersecurity research experiences with other ROTC students in their military coursework. The PIs and ROTC Commanders are excited about this opportunity to enhance our future military officers cybersecurity expertise and ultimately national military readiness.Our core team will work closely over the course of two, 15-week academic semesters to integrate the students into cybersecurity related research projects mapped to ONR broad priority interest areas of: Advanced RF Electronics and Materials; Communications and Networking; Data Science and Analytics; and Machine Learning, Reasoning and Intelligence. Each student will receive mentoring from a full time professional staff engineer, scientist or faculty member. The faculty PIs will have additional oversight and regular contact with all students and mentors. The UND is requesting $263,971 over one year to fund the cybersecurity research of ROTC student participants, professional scientist research mentors and project principal investigators.Over the course of two academic semesters students will participate and report progress on 30 cybersecurity related research projects under active study at the UND Wireless Institute and Center for Research Computing.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Feb 02, 2021
- Source ID
- N000142112160
Entities
People
- Paul Brenner
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Notre Dame