GW Program Objectives

GW Program Results

Produce graduates with knowledge of CSIA issues and mechanisms and the technical expertise to design and build secure information systems in the future.

The students GW has graduated have completed at least 24 hours of CSIA course work including 12 hours of GW's signature "Seminar" course.

Provide graduates with a global societal and ethical context within which to apply their technical expertise.

The required "Seminar", a course that runs throughout the scholars' two-year program, includes speakers on issues such as privacy, intellectual property, computer crime, and information warfare, and provides numerous opportunities to engage the speakers in informal discussions of the efficacy of the technological armada of security and information assurance tools utilized in response to these issues.

Provide graduates with practical experience working within the culture of the federal government.

All students who have graduated from the program to date also participated, during the summer, in paid internships at federal government agencies, national laboratories, or Federally Funded Research and Development Centers.

Provide graduates with opportunities to develop and demonstrate their ability to write and speak for both technical and non-technical audiences.

During weekly "Seminar" meetings, students present on current attacks, vulnerabilities, and mitigation techniques to their peers, visiting speakers, and course instructors. Students also prepare written system security plans for their instructor and present these to their peers.

Expand the educational opportunities for US citizens who are traditionally underrepresented populations in the computer field.

We are proud of our record on diversity in CSIA. Current statistics by gender and ethnicity in this program are at www.seas.gwu.edu/cybercorps/ethnicandgenderstats.

Establish a peer and near-peer mentoring network among prospective SFS students, current SFS s tudents and SFS students who have already completed the program and gone on to work for the federal government.

We have found that an informal network starting with assignment of "buddies" to first-year CyberCorps students and including our SFS and IASP alumni has been most effective in mentoring students in the program.

Evaluation

We have an ongoing program of evaluation. Starting in 2011, it will produce reports that will guide improvements in the years to come.