Travel Grants for The Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education

With various sources of funding, graduate students and early-career faculty in cybersecurity are able to participate in conferences in their area of research and have an opportunity to interact with other researchers. However, there seems to be much less support for faculty or doctoral students to attend conferences on cybersecurity education. Consequently, there seems to be a shortage of representation of faculty from doctoral institutions among cybersecurity education community. Yet, it is those institutions and faculty who produce the next generation of professors educating the future cybersecurity workforce.

The funding from NSF will support US-based early-career tenure-track cybersecurity faculty and PhD students at research universities to attend the Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education. Since 1996, the Colloquium brings together professionals in academia, industry, and government to provide a forum to discuss and advance cybersecurity education at large. The 2016 Colloquium, which marks the 20th anniversary of the conference, will be held on June 13-15, 2016 in Philadelphia, PA and it will consist of a three-day technical program with optional workshops right before the conference.

The project intends to have a diverse representation among the travel grant recipients in terms of gender, ethnic background, academic institutions, and geographic location. While the grant recipients are the most immediate beneficiaries, the community in general will benefit by connecting with a new group of students and faculty that will likely become active contributors in the years to come. This effort is supporting the critical need of the cybersecurity workforce development. A specific broadening participation efforts are reflected by prioritizing applicants traditionally underrepresented in cybersecurity including women, African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Native Pacific Islanders.