The University of Maryland Advanced Cybersecurity Experience for Students (ACES) program has secured the renewal of a $5 million National Science Foundation (NSF) CyberCorps Scholarship for Service (SFS) grant, advancing efforts to close the federal workforce gap in cybersecurity. This grant will provide students with financial support and hands-on experience through partnerships with federal agencies, helping to prepare the next generation of cybersecurity professionals.
Charles Harry, School of Public Policy associate research professor and director of the Center for Governance of Technology and Systems, serves as a co-principal investigator on the grant. He shared the significance of the renewal and its broader impact on the ACES program.
“The Scholarship for Service program helps develop a new generation of cybersecurity professionals,” Harry explained. “This program will increase the number of technical and operational professionals who will broadly support the needs of the federal workforce.”
ACES, part of the UMD Honors College, includes a living-learning program and a 16-credit academic minor for upperclassmen that offers a mix of technical coursework, experiential learning and professional development opportunities for students of all majors. The program was launched in 2013 and is designed to provide students with the interdisciplinary skills needed for cybersecurity roles, combining computer science, business and public policy.
Understanding the strategic consequences of cyber attacks is a critical skill that helps inform policymakers on how to allocate scarce resources most efficiently.Charles Harry
Harry highlighted the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to preparing students for government cybersecurity roles. “Cybersecurity is inherently an interdisciplinary field,” he noted. “Understanding the strategic consequences of cyber attacks is a critical skill that helps inform policymakers on how to allocate scarce resources most efficiently.” The collaboration between computer science, business and public policy at the University of Maryland provides students with a well-rounded education that equips them to tackle the complex challenges they will encounter in government roles.
The program expands the diversity of talent in the cybersecurity field. “ACES does an outstanding job bringing in populations typically not represented in the cybersecurity field. By doing so, ACES is greatly strengthening the field through the introduction of new perspectives,” said Harry. “Public policy can help with this approach by opening up resources to recruit and retain students who might not initially think this is a career path for them.”
Federal partnerships play an essential role in shaping students’ practical skills. Through internships and collaborations with agencies like the National Security Agency and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, students gain hands-on experience that deepens their understanding of policy and technical skills. “Federal agencies help provide internships to students in the ACES program providing a real-world perspective that supplements their academic experience,” Harry noted.
To further prepare students for careers in the cybersecurity field, Harry also teaches the undergraduate course PLCY388C Cybersecurity Policy: Practical Hacking for Policymakers, which introduces students, particularly those without a technical background, to the critical issues surrounding cybersecurity. The course covers topics from governance and privacy to risk management and equips future policymakers with the tools to navigate a rapidly evolving security landscape. It is designed to give students the foundational knowledge they need to engage in current debates and understand the broader impact of cyber policy decisions.
In addition to teaching, Harry is also involved in research initiatives that support student learning. One such initiative is the Cyber Events Database, a research project maintained through the work of undergraduate and graduate researchers. The database, which collects publicly available information on cyber events from 2014 to the present, was created to address a lack of consistent, well-structured data necessary for making strategic decisions on how to allocate resources for preventing and responding to cyber incidents.
Looking ahead, Harry believes the next generation of cybersecurity professionals will be instrumental in shaping the U.S. national cyber strategy. “There are many open questions in the field of cybersecurity,” he said. “Students in the classroom today will be the leaders driving how we address problems in the future.”
