Federal Cyber Service: Scholarship For Service (SFS) Student Placement Issues: Exploration of the Solution Space August 5-6, 2003 National Science Foundation, Room 830 4201 Wilson Boulevard Arlington, VA Table of Contents I. Executive Summary II. Introduction III. Actions Taken in Response to Problem IV. Recommendations APPENDIX 1: Meeting Participants APPENDIX 2: SFS Program Statistics APPENDIX 3: Agencies That Have Hired SFS Students I. Executive Summary The Federal Cyber Service: Scholarship for Service (SFS) program seeks to increase the number of qualified students entering the fields of information assurance and computer security and to increase the capacity of the United States higher education enterprise to continue to produce professionals in these fields. The program has two tracks, Scholarship and Capacity Building. The workshop, SFS Student Placement Issues: Exploration of the Solution Space, focused on problems associated with placing students participating in the Scholarship Track described below: The Scholarship Track provides funding to colleges and universities to award scholarships in information assurance and computer security fields. Scholarship recipients will become part of the Federal Cyber Service of information technology specialists who ensure the protection of the U.S. Government's information infrastructure. Upon graduation after their two-year scholarships, the recipients will be required to work for a federal agency for two years in fulfillment of their Federal Cyber Service commitment. The service agreements that each scholarship student signs with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) states that upon graduation if a Federal position has not been made available, the student is then released from any obligation to the program. SFS students are selected partially based on their desire to go to work for the Federal government. The university principal investigators, OPM, and NSF in partnership are all very motivated to make these placements happen. Heroic efforts on all sides to date have resulted in a placement rate well over 90%. A concern over the ability of the program to maintain and improve on this high placement rate as the program continues to grow was the primary force behind this workshop. II. Introduction Simply stated, the problem addressed by this workshop is the ability to place SFS students in internships and permanent Federal positions as the number of students continues to grow. The goal was to bring together principal investigators (PIs) (see Appendix 1) of the SFS scholarship track to address concerns about student selection and placement. Day One of the workshop focused on developing short-term solutions for student selection, internship opportunities, and job placement. Day Two was devoted to long-term approaches to improving these and other aspects of the SFS program. The group identified best practices and areas for improvement, and developed a list of recommendations for the Interagency Coordinating Committee (ICC), which oversees the SFS program. By the end of 2005, the SFS program will have produced about 350 graduates. The Office of Personnel Management provided a breakdown of current student enrollment as of August 1, 2003 (see Appendix 2) (some PIs acknowledged they had incoming students who were not yet registered with OPM). A total of 301 students were registered at 19 universities; one student is enrolled in a doctoral program while the majority are seeking master's degrees. Of 55 graduates, as of August 2003, 30 have been placed in full-time positions, and 17 are awaiting security clearances related to placements. Graduates have been placed at 17 Federal agencies (see Appendix 3) to date, 60-70 percent of placements are related to the National Security Agency (NSA). Two students have not yet been placed, and six have been released from the program without obligation. Of 35 students expected to graduate in December 2003, 20 have tentative placements. OPM projected that 77 students will graduate between March and May of 2004. In May 2004, 190 students will need internship opportunities to satisfy their program requirements. III. Actions Taken in Response to Problem Special Projects to Increase Awareness Since June 2003, NSF has supported several special projects, most aimed at increasing awareness about the SFS program among potential students and employers: * Pilot project: Forming Academic Partnerships with Local Federal Activities, a Florida State University effort to hire an individual dedicated to recruiting and placing SFS students in the region. (Award #0342008) * A workshop to define a National Cyber Defense Exercise Competition, a showcase for SFS students intended to raise visibility of the SFS program, particularly among the Armed Forces community. West Point Military Academy and George Washington University representatives are among those involved in this effort. (Award #0342739) * Federal Cyber Service Initiative: Computer Forensics Curricula. (Award #0342296) * Regional information assurance (IA) workshop for underrepresented groups. (Award #0342794) * IA educational support program: workshop for course development and more. (Award #0343292) * Partners in Securing Cyberspace through Education and Service Capacity Building. (Award #0338494) * A summer workshop for beginning information systems security educators. (Award #0341259) * Trustworthy Computer Systems: Undergraduate Research Experience. (Award #0342038) Students Awaiting Security Clearances The program has limited funds available to support graduates who have not been placed or are waiting for security clearances. So far, seven institutions have requested such funds, and the total has reached about $170,000. NSF emphasized that these support funds are limited, and PIs should continue to seek placement opportunities for graduates as soon as possible after graduation. Program Rules Revised New solicitations are to be published three months before the January 2004 deadline. The fiscal year 2004 SFS program solicitation includes the following revised language: It is important for all PIs and SFS scholarship students to understand that OPM expects and needs active participations on your part to help assist with both summer internship and permanent placement at a Federal agency. The program has a (as near as possible to) 100 percent placement goal, which can only be reached through active cooperation between all parties involved. Material to assist PIs in this process developed at a recent NSF workshop dealing with this issue is available. Contact the lead program director for SFS for details. NSF and OPM Raise Awareness About the Program NSF, OPM, and a number of SFS Principal Investigators and their students have given numerous presentations and attended numerous conferences to raise awareness about the SFS program among potential employers. They have addressed Department of Defense (DOD) Computer Forensics Laboratory representatives, as well as the Committee for National Security Systems, which involved representatives from 23 Federal agencies. Upcoming presentations include the NSF/National Institute of Standards and Technology Invitational Workshop on Cybersecurity: Workforce Needs, Assessment, and Educational Innovation and the Interagency Resources Management Conference. Presentations will be provided as frequently as feasible and suggestions for opportunities to reach gatherings of potential employers are welcome. IV. Recommendations Immediate Action Items to Address Short-Term Issues OPM Related: * OPM is arranging for a demonstration to show PIs what agency officials see when they run student searches. * OPM staff and PIs are exploring other possible implementations (e.g. the University of Tulsa and Florida State University are both working on projects to address this issue) to gather information on such "best practices" and disseminate them among PIs and participating agencies. * OPM staff is developing a fact sheet for Federal human resource personnel about hiring SFS students. (http://www.sfs.opm.gov) NSF Related: * NSF will consider funding experimental programs that address improving the SFS student placement process. * NSF will evaluate information about students who were released from the SFS program (i.e., not placed) to determine if any trends can be identified to enhance the recruitment, application, selection, or placement process. * NSF will explore the feasibility, costs, and desirability of performing a National Agency Check for all scholarship students. Ideally, the National Agency Check will take place as early as possible in the process, for example, when student nominations are sent to OPM for final selection. * NSF will consider using the results of publicity efforts (successful student placements and testimonials from agency representatives) to initiate a marketing campaign. In budgeting for the upcoming year, NSF will consider a marketing campaign to launch as early as December 2003. * As other entities evaluate the assumption that the government is facing a critical shortage of individuals trained in IA, NSF will report the results back to the SFS program participants and take into account the relationship of the findings to the program. * NSF will consider including in the program solicitation a requirement that PIs design and implement their own feedback mechanisms for students who are placed. Action Items to Address Long-Term Selection and Placement Issues NSF Related: * The program should consider extending the potential length of available scholarships to allow more than two years of funding, and consider removing the requirement that scholarship students attend school on a full-time basis. * The program should evaluate what changes would be needed to better accommodate student co-op opportunities in lieu of internships. * The program should consider funding an internship coordinator position at OPM for SFS students. * The program should assess the perceived level of need for IA personnel at Federal agencies in the coming years as well as the available positions. If the assessment suggests insufficient Federal placement opportunities will be available for SFS students, the program should consider allowing students to meet the service requirement by taking IA jobs at government-owned, contract-operated facilities, such as the national laboratories, and at the state and local government levels. The program should also consider whether faculty positions in IA could be considered as placement opportunities that meet the service requirement. If further placement opportunities are needed, consider other Federal contractor positions. * The program should evaluate the post placement survey conducted by the Information Assurance Scholarship Program (IASP) program and consider whether a similar survey should be implemented for SFS students. * The program should consider a mechanism to enable the current and incoming SFS/NSF program directors to work together (for as long as six months) before the incoming SFS/NSF program director takes over the position. Participants felt that continuity of management at this point in the program is highly desirable. * As much as possible, the program should strive to maintain consistent or comparable guidelines for length of Federal employment commitment between the IASP and SFS programs. * The program should consider requiring proposals to include (in an appendix) matriculation data that document the existence of courses, etc. * NSF should consider including on the review panel individuals with knowledge about the Centers of Academic Excellence. Principal Investigator Related: * To identify a larger pool of potential scholarship students, PIs may wish to consider personalized recruitment efforts. * To enhance recruitment efforts and to attract more women and minority students to the program, PIs may wish to consider other NSF grant opportunities (such as the Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement program, which could support outreach activities to high school and community college students, and the Advanced Technological Education program, which partners with community colleges). Potential Short-Term Approaches to Internship and Job Placement Principal Investigator Related: * Hold a job fair for SFS students to meet with representatives of Federal agencies. Invite representatives of Federal agencies to visit your school (as early as possible in the academic year) and meet with SFS students. Ideally, representatives should include both those in the areas of technical focus as well as those with authority to hire. * Gather representatives of Federal agencies and present profiles of available SFS students. * Meet with Federal agency representatives who have possible hiring influence, explain the SFS program, present student résumés, arrange for private meetings with students, and talk with human resources representatives from the agency about hiring SFS students. * Aggressively seek out potential internships with Federal agencies; if the agency can accommodate an internship but is unable to fund it, contact NSF for a one-time funding solution (as a last resort). * If an agency is willing to provide a paid internship but has difficulty putting an intern on its payroll, consider an arrangement whereby the agency makes a grant to or contract with the university, and the university pays the student intern. This arrangement allows for leeway among the parties involved. * Contact currently placed students; invite them to represent their agency at a job fair or have them identify a contact person in the agency with hiring authority who may be interested in SFS students. * Direct agencies that have recruited through the IASP program to check the SFS database if they need more interns. * Consider publicity opportunities. Send details of successful placements to NSF and identify representatives of Federal agencies who will give testimonials about the high quality of SFS students. * Present details of successful placements and testimonials from employers to your university's PR office; ask the PR staff to publicize in local papers, students' hometown papers, and alumni magazine. * Ask OPM to promote SFS students for internship positions related to IA but not necessarily denoted as 2210. * Network among each other, PI to PI. If you have contact with an agency representative who is interested in the program but none of your students meet the specific needs of the job, refer the representative to other PIs. * Consider small-scale publicity/marketing efforts, such as including text on the back of business cards or on individual faculty or department websites promoting the SFS program. NSF Related: * NSF will work with the NSF public relations office to place stories promoting SFS in national media outlets. APPENDIX 1: Meeting Participants Blaine Burnham, PhD University of Nebraska 1110 South 67th Street Peter Keiwit Institute, Room 280 Omaha, NE 68182-0694 Phone: 402-554-2039 Fax: 402-554-2088 Email: bburnham@mail.unomaha.edu Bei-Tseng Chu, PhD Professor University of North Carolina at Charlotte Department of Software and Information Systems 9201 University City Boulevard Charlotte, NC 28223 Phone: 704-687-4568 Fax: 704-687-6065 Email: billchu@uncc.edu Melissa Dark, PhD Associate Professor, Assistant Dean Purdue University School of Technology, CERIAS Knoy Hall West Lafayette, IN 47907 Phone: 765-496-6761 Fax: 765-496-3181 Email: dark@cerias.purdue.edu James Davis, PhD Associate Professor Iowa State University Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering 2413 Coover Hall Ames, IA 50011 Phone: 515-294-0659 Fax: 515-294-1717 Email: davis@iastate.edu Seymour E. Goodman Professor of International Affairs and Computing and Co-Director, Georgia Tech Information Security Center Georgia Institute of Technology 781 Marietta Street, NW Atlanta, GA 30332-0610 Phone: 404-385-1461 Fax: 404-894-1900 Email: goodman@cc.gatech.edu Miguel Hernández Manager San Antonio Services Section, Office of Personnel Management 8610 Broadway, Suite 305 San Antonio, TX 78217 Phone: 210-805-2423 x502 Fax: 210-805-2407 Email: mxhernan@opm.gov Lance J. Hoffman, PhD Professor George Washington University Computer Science Department Washington, DC 20052 Phone: 202-994-4955 Fax: 202-994-4875 Email: lanceh@gwu.edu Cynthia Irvine, PhD Associate Professor, Director, CISR Naval Postgraduate School Code CS/IC, Computer Sciences Department Naval Postgraduate School Monterey, CA 93943 Phone: 831-656-2461 Fax: 831-656-2814 Email: irvine@nps.navy.mil Lorie M. Liebrock, PhD Assistant Professor New Mexico Tech Computer Sciences Department 801 Leroy Place Socorro, NM 87801 Phone: 505-835-6729 Fax: 505-835-5587 Email: liebrock@cs.nmt.edu William V. Maconachy, PhD Manager NIETP National Security Agency 9800 Savage Road Fort Meade, MD 20755-6752 Phone: 410-854-6206 Fax: 410-854-7043 Email: w.macona@radium.ncsc.mil Gerald M. Masson, PhD Director Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering Information Security Institute 3400 North Charles Street Wyman Park Building, Room 407 Baltimore, MD 21218 Phone: 410-516-7013 Fax: 410-516-3301 Email: masson@jhu.edu Ernest McDuffie, PhD Program Director Division of Undergraduate Education National Science Foundation 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Room 835 Arlington, VA 22230 Phone: 703-292-4655 Fax: 703-292-9016 Email: emcduffi@nsf.gov Don McGillen, PhD Executive Director Carnegie Mellon University Center for Computer and Communications Security 4616 Henry Street Pittsburgh, PA 15213 Phone: 412-268-6755 Fax: 412-268-1460 Email: mcgillen@cmu.edu Leah M. Meisel Deputy Associate Director Office of Personnel Management Strategic Human Resources Policy Center for Talent and Capacity Policy 1900 E Street, NW Washington, DC 20415 Phone: 202-606-8097 Fax: 202-606-2329 Email: lmmeisel@opm.gov Nasir Memon, PhD Associate Professor Polytechnic University 6 Metro Tech Center, Computer Science Brooklyn, NY 11201 Phone: 718-260-3970 Fax: 718-260-3609 Email: memon@poly.edu Loretta A. Moore , PhD Associate Professor and Chair Jackson State University Department of Computer Sciences PO Box 18839 Jackson, MS 39217 Phone: 601-979-2105 Fax: 601-979-2478 Email: loretta.a.moore@jsums.edu Christine M. Nickell, BA Manager, DoD IASP Program NSA, National Information Assurance Education and Training Program 9800 Savage Road, Attn: 12 - NIETP, Ste 6752 Fort Meade, MD 20755-6752 Phone: 410-854-6206 Fax: 410-854-7043 Email: c.nicke2@radium.ncsc.mil Susan Older, PhD Associate Professor Syracuse University EECS Department CST 2-177 Syracuse, NY 13244 Phone: 315-443-4679 Fax: 315-443-1122 Email: sueo@ecs.syr.edu Nancy Randa, MSIR Deputy Associate Director for Talent Services Office of Personnel Management Human Resources Products and Services 1900 E Street, NW, Room 6530 Washington, DC 20415 Phone: 202-606-1491 Fax: 202-606-1399 Email: neranda@opm.gov Sujeet Shenoi, PhD Professor of Computer Science University of Tulsa Computer Science Department 600 South College Avenue Tulsa, OK 74104-3189 Phone: 918-631-3269 Fax: 918-631-3306 Email: sujeet@utulsa.edu Ray Vaughn, PhD Associate Professor Mississippi State University Department of Computer Science and Engineering PO Box 9637 Mississippi State, MS 39762 Phone: 662-325-7450 Fax: 662-325-8997 Email: vaughn@cse.msstate.edu Alec Yasinsac, PhD Assistant Professor Florida State University Computer Science Department 262 James Jay Love Building Computer Science Department Tallahassee, FL 32306-4530 Phone: 850-644-6407 Fax: 850-644-0058 Email: yasinsac@fsu.edu APPENDIX 2: SFS Program Statistics (as of August 26, 2003) Participating Institutions: Number of Students Carnegie Mellon 45 Florida State University 5 Georgia Tech 19 George Washington University 9 University of Idaho 34 Idaho State University 0* Iowa State 34 Jackson State 2 Johns Hopkins University 9 Mississippi State 13 Naval Postgraduate School 38 University of Nebraska 0* New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology 11 University of North Carolina 35 Norwich 2 Polytechnic University 24 Purdue University 19 Syracuse 10 University of Tulsa 48 TOTALS 357 *Idaho State University and University of Nebraska have not submitted selections for Fall 2003 SFS Graduates as of September 2003 * PhD - 1 * Masters - 241 * Bachelors - 60 * New students - 56 (not registered, no degree info yet) 55 Graduates as of September 2003 (Dec. 02, May - Sept 03) * 30 placed * 17 undergoing Security Clearances * 2 have possible offers pending Security * 6 released 35 Students to Graduate in December 2003 * 20 tentatively matched * 15 not matched 77 Students will graduate between March 2004 and May 2004 190 Students will need an internship in May 2004 APPENDIX 3: Agencies That Have Hired SFS Students The following agencies have placed SFS students either in an internship or for post-graduation employment: 1. CIA (Internship) 2. Department of Agriculture * CSREES (Permanent) 3. Department of Army * Corps of Engineers (Internship) 4. Department of Commerce * NIST (Internship/Permanent) * CIO (Permanent) * International Trade Administration (Internship/Permanent) 5. Department of Defense * Defense Computer Forensics Lab (Internship/Permanent) * NSA (Internship/Permanent) 6. Department of Energy (Internship) 7. Department of Homeland Security * FedCirc (Permanent) 8. Department of Housing and Urban Development * OIG (Internship/Permanent) 9. Department of Justice * Federal Bureau of Investigation (Internship/Permanent) * CIO (Permanent) 10. Department of Navy * Naval Oceanographic Agency (Internship) 11. Department of Transportation * Federal Aviation Administration (Internship) * Coast Guard (Internship) 12. Department of Treasury * Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) (Internship) * Secret Service (Internship/Permanent) * Internal Revenue Service (Internship) 13. 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