The Maryland Cybersecurity Center (MCC) is a prominent academic center situated on the University of Maryland (UMD) campus, bringing students, researchers, and faculty together.
It is one of the top places in the region for cybersecurity innovation and growth.
The center is divided into three sections focusing on research, education, and outreach. UMD was launched in 2010 under the strong leadership of Patrick O’Shea and Larry Davis.
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UMD Cybersecurity Education
The University of Maryland Cybersecurity Center provides a wide range of educational courses for undergraduate, postgraduate, and Ph.D. programs.
ACES is the only undergraduate program in the nation that focuses on Cybersecurity.
Other than that, students who come from computer engineering, computer science, or computer electrical have various courses to opt-in Cybersecurity to attain a specialization in this sector.
Research at the University Of Maryland (UMD)
UMD Cybersecurity Center is a professional approach to Cybersecurity that participates with other experts in computer science and electrical engineering and experts who have strong backgrounds in social sciences, economics, human-computer interaction, and various other fields of engineering.
The center is known for its specific strengths in the programming language, cryptography, software security, empirical security, cybersecurity economics, and behavioral aspects of security.
NSA has certified the University of Maryland as the National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Research. The university is also stated as the Center of Academic Excellence by the Department of Homeland Security.
Outreach
The Corporate Partner’s Program permits some leading companies to work with faculty and benefit from the expertise.
Besides, the corporate partners have absolute entrance to students to assign them at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Apart from that, UMD highly participates in other activities to form a broader community through public events such as lecture series, seminars, annual symposiums, and educational outreach programs.
The center also works with legal experts, established bodies, policymakers, and technical expertise to make better decisions.
What Is Cybersecurity?
Cybersecurity is an expertized field in the Information Technology sector, which comes under computer science. It aims to furnish students with knowledge and skills to defend the networks, websites, data, and computers from getting cyber-attacks.
The profession of Cybersecurity has evolved over the years, and one reason is the increasing number of cybercrimes. Any industry that carries sensitive data highly requires a Cyber Security Professional to safeguard the information.
Cybersecurity is essential for all the confidential sectors such as government, military, medical, financial, etc. In addition, specific data can be sensitive information, which is the main reason why Cybersecurity is important.
Some of the most significant challenges in this field are network security, data security, endpoint security, and application security.
Cloud security, database, infrastructure security, identity management, mobile security, disaster recovery, and business continuity planning.
The Maryland Cybersecurity Center provides various pre-college, undergraduate, and graduate courses to the students, which are as follows:
● Pre-College
The UMD Center faculties work for women to provide cybersecurity workshops and camps for middle and high school girls, which include: The faculties use various concepts and careers to teach students different formats of Cybersecurity.
The increasing awareness and interest in cybersecurity and related workshops provide the needed exposure to the students about cybersecurity careers during middle school.
However, to do this, the faculty needs to create a curriculum including a computer lab.
Therefore, the UMD Cybersecurity Center has developed this workshop where school students will learn about cybersecurity activities and various other fields. Some of the programs which are held for students are as follow:
Middle School
Saturday Cybersecurity Awareness Workshop Grades 6 to 8
This workshop is organized for middle-school girls who educate them about cyber safety and cybersecurity basics, teaching them how to keep personal information secure online.
Cool Careers In Cybersecurity For Girls Workshop
The UMD Center and the National Cyber watch K-12 division organized the workshop for hundreds of middle school girls for an interactive session where participants solve the imitated case of theft and learn exciting career options in the field.
CyberSTEM Camp
It is a five-day camp for 7th and 8th-grade students where they learn computer forensics, cryptography, programming, and other topics.
High School
Intermediate CybterSTEM Camp
This workshop is organized for 9th and 10th-grade girls where they get exposure to industrial programming languages, cyber forensics techniques, vulnerabilities, and others.
These workshops can help students prepare for internships, further education, and entry-level jobs in Cybersecurity.
Cyber Defense Training Camp
It is a seven-day residential camp for girls and boys studying in classes 11th and 12th. They can apply to this program to learn intermediate networking, hacking, programming, computer forensics, and many more, along with learning about careers in Cybersecurity from the University of Maryland.
● Cyber Defense Training Camp
The specially designed intermediate-level summer program of Cyber Defense Training Camp for high school students.
The participants will get an opportunity to learn and expand their practical knowledge in Cybersecurity with the help of professionals.
Besides that, students are also introduced to the Advanced Cybersecurity Experience for Students (ACES) honors program offered by the University of Maryland.
This camp strives to prepare the generation of cybersecurity professionals from end to end through skill-building, interactive learning, and resource utilization.
Other than that, the students can also choose different types of programs available at the Maryland Cybersecurity Center.
The curriculum of the camp includes:
⮚ Operating system
⮚ Programming
⮚ System Administration
⮚ Networking
Other Activities include:
⮚ Cyber Defense Exercises
⮚ Campus Tour
⮚ Field Trip To the NSA Cryptologic Museum
⮚ Guest Speakers
⮚ Team Building Exercises
UMD Undergraduate Students Courses And Enrollment Program
⮚ ACES
The Advanced Cybersecurity Experience For Students (ACES) is a learning program and a minor academic program for undergraduate students of various majors.
It is an accredited part of the UMD, which was launched in 2013 with the help of the founding sponsor, Northrop Grumman.
The program is supported by the partners of the campus in both monetary donation and mentee connections.
It is a 15-credit curriculum program combining both experimental and technical development. Once the students complete the LLP program (Living-Learning Program), they attain an Honor College Citation in Cybersecurity.
Students who wish to establish their career in Cybersecurity can apply for this program of four-year duration.
⮚ ACES Minor
The ACES Minor is an upper-level technical and non-technical program, including group projects, course work, internships, and research opportunities.
This course has both public and private industry professionals in Cybersecurity serving as professional instructors to help them get a more profound knowledge of the field.
It is a 16-credit curriculum that allows the students to enhance their ability to attain advanced technical skills.
Once they complete the course, the students would be able to understand the field abroad.
However, a minimum 3.2 GPA is required to apply for this course. It is one of the best courses for students who want to explore practical and technical knowledge of the field.
⮚ Cybersecurity Club
Cybersecurity Club is the student-run organization of the University of Maryland. The club members and leaders are currently completing their studies in various fields such as computer engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, and others.
The goal of the club is to provide technical resources to the students who are interested in Cybersecurity.
There are monthly meetings held at the cup where various discussions occur regarding multiple concepts, including digital forensics, network security, secure coding, penetration testing, cryptography, and reverse engineering.
Apart from that, the club also invited companies and organizations to speak and promote their work.
The cybersecurity club meets weekly throughout the ongoing semester to compete in various cybersecurity competitions. It allows the participants to practice applying both offensive and defensive cybersecurity concepts.
● Degree Requirements For CS Major
CS major is a cumulative program. Therefore, the students must meet the specifications or the lower-level coursework.
Besides, all students must have 12 credit hours for 300 to 400 level courses excluding computer science with an aggregate GPA of 1.7 or higher than this in this coursework.
Candidates pursuing a minor or double major or dual degree can use these credits in the area except disciplines such as information science. It is essential to consult with an advisor to start with your courses.
Students Courses And Enrollment Program at the University Of Maryland (UMD)
Master Of Engineering In Cybersecurity
The Master of Engineering in Cybersecurity is provided by the Office of Advanced Engineering Education in partnership with the Department of Computer Science, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the Maryland Cybersecurity Center.
The UMD cybersecurity programs merge engineering applications with the principle of computer science.
Various Course Finders In This Course:
⮚ Applied Cryptography
⮚ Embedded System Hacking and Security
⮚ Security Tools For Information Security
⮚ Information Assurance
⮚ Digital Forensics and Incidence Response
⮚ Hacking of C Programs and Unix Binaries
⮚ Network Security
⮚ Networks and Protocols
⮚ Secure Operating Systems
⮚ Secure Software Testing & Construction
⮚ Cloud Security
⮚ Fundamentals For Artificial Intelligence And Deep Learning Framework
⮚ Penetration testing
⮚ Bitcoin And Cryptocurrency Technologies
MS/Ph.D. In Computer/Science/Electrical And Computer Engineering
⮚ Parallel Processing
⮚ Software Engineering
⮚ Programming Languages
⮚ Computer Systems
⮚ Database Systems
⮚ Parallel Processing
⮚ Performance Evaluation
⮚ Networking
⮚ Algorithms and Computation Theory
⮚ Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
⮚ User Interface Technology
⮚ Artificial Intelligence
⮚ Computer Vision
⮚ Geographic Information Systems
⮚ Geometric Computing
⮚ Scientific Computing
⮚ Computational Linguistics
⮚ Security
⮚ Numerical Analysis
MS/Ph.D. In Electrical And Computer Engineering
⮚ Applied Electromagnetics
⮚ Communications and Networking
⮚ Control, Robotics, and Dynamical Systems
⮚ Signal Processing
⮚ Optics And Photonics
⮚ Circuits And Systems
⮚ Bioelectronics And System
⮚ Security
Graduate Certificate
The graduate certificate in Engineering collaborates with the Department of Computer Science, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the UMD Cybersecurity Center. Here are the five courses that students can consult:
– Programming in C for Cybersecurity Applications
– Networks and Protocols
– Secure Operating Systems
– Network Security
– Information Assurance
