CyberCorps® Scholarship for Service: The New Buckeye Scholarship for Service Program

While rapid advances in digital technologies have revolutionized modern living, they have also increased the complexity and frequency of cyber threats. To address this ongoing challenge, the Buckeye SFS program at The Ohio State University will prepare a cohort of cybersecurity experts with advanced degrees to serve national security interests. By offering a comprehensive curriculum and hands-on learning opportunities, the project will train students to contribute to the federal cybersecurity workforce.

The program will equip graduates with advanced knowledge and practical experience to secure critical systems, enable them to drive innovation, and lead the cybersecurity field. The project will recruit a wide range of students, including those from diverse backgrounds, to ensure a sustainable and robust cybersecurity workforce for the next generation.

The Buckeye SFS program will emphasize advanced graduate training through the accelerated BS+MS, MS, and PhD programs. The program will offer an integrated curriculum encompassing both solid theories in cybersecurity and applied cybersecurity fields, such as network security, system security, cryptography, and secure autonomous vehicles. The project will provide extensive opportunities to engage students in a wide spectrum of cutting-edge cybersecurity research ranging from hardware to software, large cyber-physical systems to ubiquitous Internet of Things devices and large-scale networked distributed systems.

It will also prepare doctoral graduates as researchers and educators in higher education, to build capacity for expanding the pipeline of scientific talent. Through outreach and community-service activities, the project will spotlight cybersecurity issues for the community, introduce educational opportunities, and stimulate public awareness with the long-term goal of changing people's security and privacy perceptions and improving their security behaviors in daily life.

This project is supported by the CyberCorps® Scholarship for Service (SFS) program, which funds proposals establishing or continuing scholarship programs in cybersecurity and aligns with the U.S. National Cyber Strategy to develop a superior cybersecurity workforce. Following graduation, scholarship recipients are required to work in cybersecurity for a federal, state, local, or tribal Government organization for the same duration as their scholarship support. 

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.