This course engages students in real-world cybersecurity and information systems security problems of interest to government organizations and industry partners. Students will learn how to apply research techniques, think clearly about problems and constraints, formulate and analyze potential solutions, evaluate solutions through simulation and experimentation, and communicate their results effectively. Working in small groups under the mentorship of technical clients from government and industry, teams of students will formulate, carry out, and present original research on current cybersecurity/information assurance problems of interest. Project topics come from lists supplied by government and industry partners. The course will be synchronized with similar offerings at several partner schools via videoconference, using resources provided through the INSuRE program.

Class format

Lecture and project-based

Home department

INI

Target audience

The course will be open to graduate students in computer science and engineering (e.g., INI, CS, ECE, Information Systems, etc.) who have background in information security / information assurance and have significant expertise in at least one relevant technical area. All students will be initially waitlisted for the course until instructors have the chance to verify student qualifications beyond the basic pre-requisites.

Background required

Students must have taken 18-730 or 14-741.

Learning objectives

Students in this course will learn how to:

• apply research techniques
• think clearly about problems and constraints
• formulate and analyze potential solutions
• evaluate solutions through simulation and experimentation
• communicate their results effectively

Faculty and instructors who have taught this course in the past

Ehab Al-Shaer, Patrick Tague