EMSE Cybersecurity Curriculum to Support President's Cybersecurity National Action Plan
January 18, 2019
(L to R) Mark Guilford, Abdul Alfaqiri, Adrian Gheorghe, Ariel Pinto, Unal Tatar, Omer Poyraz and Omer Keskin. Not pictured: Goksel Kucukkaya and Leili Soltaniseha
By Keith Pierce
Engineering Management and Systems Engineering (EMSE) professors are featured curriculum authors in the National Security Agency's (NSA) National Cybersecurity Curriculum Program.
Professors Ariel Pinto and Adrian Gheorghe, along with the rest of the project team and an Emergent Risk Initiative (ERI) student cohort, developed the curriculum.
"The curriculum developed by Old Dominion University is one of the first 10 to be released as we work to secure our nation by strengthening the cyber workforce," Maureen Turney, program director for the National Cybersecurity Curriculum Program at NSA, said in a letter to ODU researchers.
In fiscal year 2017, the NSA awarded 54 grants to universities to build courses and modules in high-need cybersecurity areas. Old Dominion EMSE researchers were awarded the National Security Agency Cybersecurity Core Curricula Development Grant to develop a course on Cybersecurity Risk Management to support the President's Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP).
All curriculum undergoes a multi-faceted review before being released. The ODU curriculum is now publicly available for educational institutions that want to educate and prepare cybersecurity graduates to fill federal government cybersecurity positions.
"We congratulate Dr. Pinto, Dr. Gheorghe and the ERI@ODU student cohort for their great work," said Andres Sousa-Poza, EMSE professor and chair. "This is no small feat given that the NSA is working with more than 50 universities to develop its training capabilities. The Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Department at Old Dominion University works hard to gain distinction for our academic programs and products, which are nationally recognized. We are all extremely proud of this work that continues in this tradition."
