The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded UMBC its third grant to continue its Scholarship for Service (SFS) cybersecurity scholarship program directed by computer science Professors Alan T. Sherman (PI) and Roberto Yus (CoPI). The $969,645 three-year award will support five new scholars in CS, CE, or IS at the BS, MS, or PhD levels. Each year, each scholar will receive full tuition and fees and $6000 professional expenses. In return, each scholar must work for government for each year of support at the federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial level. Scholars must be US citizens or permanent residents. Prospective scholars may apply by 12noon September 12, 2025, via Scholarship Retriever. Sherman (PI) and Richard Forno (CoPI) directed UMBC’s SFS program since 2012, bringing UMBC over $12 million to support cybersecurity at UMBC, including for scholarships and research activities of Sherman’s Cyber Defense Lab (CDL). UMBC graduated over 100 SFS scholars, placing UMBC fifth in the nation for number of SFS graduates. UMBC SFS scholars engage actively in research and hands-on
learning. For example, each January all UMBC SFS scholars participate in a collaborative research project to analyze the security of some aspect of the UMBC network. In January 2025, the scholars analyzed the security and privacy of a prototype of UMBC’s new myUMBC search that integrates ChatGPT. Each summer, SFS scholars carry out an internship with government.
Reflecting the growing importance of artificial intelligence (AI) and changing government funding priorities, new SFS scholars at UMBC will be required to complete at least four AI courses, in addition to completing a cybersecurity track. Previous innovations of UMBC’s SFS program included connecting scholars to local companies and government research labs, and extending SFS scholarships to two partner community colleges: Montgomery College and Prince George’s Community College.
At CDL, SFS scholars contribute to impactful research on several aspects of cybersecurity, including election security, formal-methods analysis of cryptographic protocols, and cybersecurity education. Recently, Sherman and his team have completed a security analysis of the SecureDNA system, which enables DNA synthesis labs to screen order requests against a database of known hazards. Sherman is a coauthor on a paper to be presented at E-Vote-ID this fall on a coercion-resistant voting system. In 2023, Sherman won best research paper at the SIGSCE conference on psychometric validation of a cybersecurity concept inventory his Cybersecurity Assessment Tools (CATS) team developed. Drs. Sherman and former SFS scholar Golaszewski are organizing the Security Standardisation Research (SSR) conference, which will take place December 13-15, 2026, in Baltimore.
