UMBC redesignated a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense


UMBC redesignated a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense


UMBC has been redesignated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD) through the academic year 2028.

The CAE-CD designation indicates that UMBC is helping reduce threats to our national infrastructure by promoting higher education and research in cyber defense and providing the nation with a pipeline of qualified cybersecurity professionals. UMBC is also designated as a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Research (CAE-R), which signifies that UMBC increases the understanding of robust cyber defense technology, policy, and practices that will enable our Nation to prevent and respond to a catastrophic event.

The National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity (NCAE-C) program is managed by the National Cryptologic School at the National Security Agency. Federal Partners include the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)/National Initiative on Cybersecurity Education (NICE), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Defense Office of the Chief Information Officer (DoD-CIO), and US Cyber Command (CYBERCOM).

The NCAE-C program’s mission is to create and manage a collaborative cybersecurity educational program with community colleges, colleges, and universities that

  • Establishes standards for cybersecurity curriculum and academic excellence,
  • Includes competency development among students and faculty,
  • Values community outreach and leadership in professional development, 
  • Integrates cybersecurity practice within the institution across academic disciplines,
  • Actively engages in solutions to challenges facing cybersecurity education.

UMBC offers courses, a track, and concentrations focused on cybersecurity in its Computer Science and Information Systems programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. In addition, UMBC has several major cybersecurity-oriented scholarship programs to prepare the next generation of cybersecurity professionals in an increasingly digital age, focusing on increasing the participation of women and other underrepresented groups in this fast-growing field. These include the UMBC Cyber Scholars program, CyberCorps: Scholarships For Service (SFS) program, and DOD Cyber Scholarship Program (CySP). Applications for SFS cybersecurity scholarships to begin in Fall 2022 are due via Scholarship Retriever by 12noon November 15, 2021.

UMBC also has professional cybersecurity programs that include certificate programs as well as a Master’s of Professional Studies (MPS) degree at its campuses in Catonsville (UMBC main campus) and Rockville (UMBC at the Universities at Shady Grove). UMBC Training Centers offers cybersecurity courses for both individuals and organizations.

Cybersecurity research at UMBC occurs in many of its laboratories and in the UMBC Center for Cybersecurity (UCYBR), which recently merged with UMBC’s original cybersecurity center, the UMBC Center for Information Security and Assurance (CISA).

talk: Ed Raff on Machine Learning for Malware: Challenges and Progress, 12-1pm ET Wed 2/17


UMBC Information Systems Department

Machine Learning for Malware:
Challenges and Progress 

Dr. Edward Raff
Booz Allen Hamilton
Visiting Prof. UMBC Computer Science & Electrical Engineering

12:00-1:00 pm ET Wednesday, 17 February 2021

online via WebEx


Malware is an ever-growing problem, single malware families have caused billions in damages, and the first direct death attributed to malware taking down a hospital has occurred. To detect new malware, machine learning is a naturally attractive approach. However, malware poses a number of unique challenges that have slowed the progress of ML-based solutions. In this talk, we will look at the task of malware detection from byte-based analysis, why it poses many challenging machine learning research problems, and progress we have made on these tasks by taking some non-standard approaches to machine learning: building shallow and wide networks instead of deep, handicapping the features of our model to make it robust, and using literal compression algorithms (LZMA) to find similar content. 


Edward Raff leads Booz Allen’s machine learning research group and supports clients in developing new ML solutions. His research includes cybersecurity, adversarial machine learning, fairness and ethics, fingerprint biometrics, and high-performance computing. In his spare time, he is the author of the JSAT machine learning library. He received his BS and MS in Computer Science from Purdue University and his Ph.D. in CS from UMBC. Dr. Raff is a Nvidia Deep Learning certified instructor, and Visiting Professor at UMBC.

ACM-IEEE Mid-Semester Celebration, 12-2 Mon. 10/21

ACM-IEEE Mid-Semester Celebration

12-2pm Monday, 21 October 2019

The UMBC ACM student chapter and IEEE student branch are back together for an event to mark and celebrate the mid-point of this fall semester. Take this opportunity to mingle, network, explore ideas, collaborate and treat yourself to a wonderful feast while you’re at it! Faculty, staff and especially students from the CSEE and IS departments are encouraged to participate.

Location: UMBC Engineering Building Atrium
Date: Monday, 21 October 2019
Time: 12:00pm to 2:00pm
Hosted by: UMBC ACM and IEEE Chapters

We hope to see you all there!

The ACM and IEEE student chapters of UMBC in association with Computer Science & Electrical Engineering and Information System departments.


Email with any questions about this event and follow the UMBC ACM student chapter Facebook page for event updates.

talk: Unbiased Decisions with Biased Data, Nov 14

UMBC students win ‘Opioid Epidemic Challenge Award’ by America East for designing app for teens

 

UMBC students win Opioid Epidemic Challenge Award at HackAE hackathon

Two students in the College of Engineering and Information Technology were recognized at HackAE, a 24-hour hackathon, earlier this month for developing an innovative app to help teens struggling with opioid issues. Agatha Turyahikayo ’21, computer science, and Gabrielle Watson ’21, information systems, won the “Opioid Epidemic Challenge Award.”

Now in its second year, the HackAE event brings America East conference students together to build software and hardware projects that address the real-world challenges facing our neighborhoods, cities, states, and country, with a specific emphasis on issues pertaining to cybersecurity, education, environmental sustainability, and health and wellness. This was the first time UMBC participated.

“Agatha and Gabrielle have applied the capabilities of crowdsourcing and social media with their app-development prowess to create a proof-of-concept app that can not only help teens at risk of opioid problems take confidence-building steps to try and help themselves but also help reduce the flow of new entrants to the nation’s opioid crisis and thus help society at large,” explains Rick Forno, assistant director of the UMBC Center for Cybersecurity and director of the Cybersecurity Graduate Program at UMBC, who is a faculty advisor of HackUMBC. “Empowering teens in this way, and especially in trying to overcome this devastating national problem, can help build and strengthen community ties and foster resilience within their generation, which among other things can reduce medical costs, law enforcement incidents, incarceration rates, and help create a healthier society for all.”

Watson and Turyahikayo were asked to create an opioid prevention platform specifically for teens. The app they developed pairs teens in need with teens who wish to help others facing opioid challenges.

The opioid epidemic facing the country affects every community and demographic; however, Turyahikayo said that she was surprised to learn how widely teenagers are affected by the crisis. “Unfortunately, many of the resources we found for opioid abuse didn’t target teens very well and were not reaching those who needed help,” she explained, which led her and Watson to create an app that teens could access on their mobile phones.

While Turyahikayo and Watson were recognized for the app they created, they faced some challenges during the hackathon. They did not have prior experience developing Android apps, but used trial and error to figure out how the Android Studio program would allow them to develop an app during the hackathon. Turyahikayo is planning to continue to develop the app over winter break.

Not only does the app connect teens in need of help, it also offers a range of helpful resources. “It can help loved ones to recognize the signs of opioid abuse and help those who don’t realize they have a problem,” Turyahikayo explains.

Adapted from a UMBC News story written by Megan Hanks. Banner image: Gabrielle Watson, right, and Agatha Turyahikayo at HackAE. Photo courtesy of Agatha Turyahikayo.

talk: Statistical Methods for Integration and Analysis of Opinionated Text, 4/21