IUP’s redesignation as a national Center for Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security was celebrated at a recent awards ceremony in Huntsville, Alabama.
IUP is one of only six institutions in Pennsylvania and one of just 200 universities in the nation selected for this recognition.
IUP was one of the first universities in the nation to integrate the disciplines of criminology and computer science to support an academic program in information assurance (now known as cyber defense). Cyber defense education refers to information operations that protect and defend information and information systems by ensuring availability, integrity, authentication, confidentiality, and nonrepudiation.
IUP was first recognized as a Center for Academic Excellence in 2002 and has held the designation throughout 2015. The most recently designation is for 2016 through 2021.
The Center of Excellence criteria includes cyber defense curriculum, collaboration with the university information technology, educational outreach to the community, and interactions with other educational entities such as elementary, middle, and high schools, community colleges, and other universities.
IUP's interdisciplinary program includes faculty and students from computer science, criminology, economics, and management and information sciences. The Centers for Academic Excellence mission is to promote a more secure cyber environment through education at all levels. The NSA and the DHS stress the importance of this work with the growth of the Internet of Things (the Internet of Things is projected to include over 34 billion devices connected to the Internet by 2020.)
IUP Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Timothy Moerland, Dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Deanne Snavely, and computer science faculty Waleed Faraq and David Smith were part of the ceremony honoring IUP as a Center for Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense.