Seven UAH students get cybersecurity scholarships in new NSF program

Dr. Ray Vaughn
Michael Mercier | UAH

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (Aug. 8, 2014) - Seven students at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) are the first to get cybersecurity scholarships from a new $4.2 million National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded full scholarship program in its first year at the university.

The students will matriculate at UAH, a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education, as part of the NSF's Scholarship for Service Cyber Corps.

Student recipients and their degree programs are:

• Jacob David Brooks of Athens, Bachelor of Science, Computer Engineering;
• Stephen Ray Cantley of Huntsville, Master of Science, Cybersecurity;
• Jesse R. Hairston of Harvest, Bachelor of Science/Master of Science, Computer Engineering;
• Bryant Evangelista Johnson of Huntsville, Bachelor of Science, Computer Engineering;
• Joseph Andrew O'Neill of Huntsville, Master of Science, Cybersecurity;
• Gerald Phillips of Madison, Master of Science, Cybersecurity;
• Nathan Jeremiah Sissom of Huntsville, Bachelor of Science, Computer Science/Master of Science, Cybersecurity (will start SFS scholarship in Jan 2015).

"These scholarships will pay for full tuition, up to $2,000 reimbursement for health care insurance, up to $1,000 reimbursement for books related to class work, stipends of either $20,000 for bachelor's degree students or $25,000 for master's degree students during the academic year, and they are awarded for up to four semesters of study," said Dr. Ray Vaughn, UAH's vice president for research. ""These students will serve the government - federal, state, local or tribal - upon completion of their degree."

Dr. Vaughn was the principal investigator for the NSF proposal along with co-principal investigators Dr. Sara Graves, Computer Science Department professor and director of the UAH Information Technology and Systems Center; Dr. Jatinder (Jeet) Gupta, associate dean of the UAH College of Business Administration; and Dr. Seong-Moo (Sam) Yoo, associate professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.