Missouri University of Science and Technology was recently re-designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education through 2017. Missouri S&T was the first university in Missouri to receive the five-year designation in 2007. It was also the first university in the state to be named a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Research (CAE-R) in 2008. The program provides S&T students with scholarships and grants related to securing the nation’s information systems.

The CAEIAE program was created to reduce vulnerabilities in the national information infrastructure by promoting the study of “information assurance” in U.S. colleges and universities, and to promote information assurance expertise in various disciplines.

The designation is offered jointly by the U.S. National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.

Neal L. Ziring, information assurance technical director of the NSA, notified Dr. Bruce McMillin, professor of computer science and S&T’s coordinator for the center, of the re-designation in a recent letter. Ziring quoted one of the reviewers as citing S&T’s “impressive set of experienced faculty – notable for breadth and depth of knowledge on information assurance and critical infrastructure protection fields.”

Additional members of the Missouri S&T Center for Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education and Research are Dr. Dan Lin, assistant professor of computer science; Dr. Wei Jiang, assistant professor of computer science; Dr. Ali Hurson, professor of computer science; Dr. Sahra Sedighsarvestani, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering; Dr. Sriram Chellappan, assistant professor of computer science; Karl Lutzen, information security officer; and Dr. Sanjay Madria, associate professor of computer science.