CSC News

August 06, 2008

NC State Designated a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Research

NC State University was recently selected by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as one of the first 23 National Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Research (CAE-R).

The CAE-R program recognizes schools that foster an Information Assurance (IA) research focus in curriculum and labs. It establishes a process that will present opportunities for IA research centers to drill deeper into solutions to securing the global information grid and also provide NSA, DHS and other federal agencies insight into the academic IA programs that can support advanced academic research and development. These agencies recognize the need for robust IA technology, policy, and practices in order to enable the nation to prevent or respond to a catastrophic event.

Dr. Mladen Vouk, head of the NC State Department of Computer Science, comments, “We are very proud of this designation as it is a strong statement of the quality of our faculty, our students, our research and our curriculum in this space.”

NC State, one of only two universities from the state of North Carolina to receive this distinction, will hold this designation from 2008 to 2013.

CAE-R universities are eligible for scholarships and grants through both the Federal and Department of Defense Information Assurance Scholarship Programs. The designation can lead to many opportunities for advanced research in the field, and it is a testament to the outstanding IA research already being conducted at NC State, and in particular, within the department of computer science..

Presentations were made to the designated centers in June during an awards ceremony at the annual Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education in Dallas, Texas.

The complete list of CAE-R universities includes:

Auburn University
Boston University
Dartmouth College
George Mason University
Indiana University
Johns Hopkins University
Mississippi State University
Missouri University of Science and Technology
North Carolina State University
Northeastern University
Oklahoma State University
Polytechnic University
Stevens Institute of Technology
The George Washington University
The Pennsylvania State University
The University of Texas at Dallas
University of California at Davis
University of California, Irvine
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
University of North Carolina, Charlotte
University of Pittsburgh
University of Washington.

For more information, consult the NSA’s official press release on the announcement.

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