2010 Winners of ITI Undergraduate Scholarships Announced

9/10/2010 5:46:00 AM ITI Staff

The Information Trust Institute (ITI) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has announced the 2010 recipients of scholarships under its Illinois Cyber Security Scholars Program (ICSSP), which supports undergraduate students at Illinois who are U.S. citizens working towards careers in information trust.

Written by ITI Staff

2010 Scholarship winners with ICSSP program director and principal investigator
2010 Scholarship winners with ICSSP program director and principal investigator
2010 Scholarship winners with ICSSP program director and principal investigator

The Information Trust Institute (ITI) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has announced the 2010 recipients of scholarships under its Illinois Cyber Security Scholars Program (ICSSP), which supports undergraduate students at Illinois who are U.S. citizens working towards careers in information trust.

The 2010 winners include:

  • William G. Leonard, a junior from Saratoga Springs, New York, majoring in Computer Science
  • Joseph K. Leong, a junior from St. Louis, Missouri, majoring in Computer Science
  • Suraj R. Malhotra, a junior from East Windsor, New Jersey, majoring in Computer Engineering
  • Brett M. Stevens, a junior from Liberty, Missouri, majoring in Computer Science

Pictured left to right: ICSSP program director Dr. Masooda Bashir; 2010 scholarship recipients Suraj R. Malhotra, William G. Leonard, Joseph K. Leong, and Brett M. Stevens; and ICSSP principal investigator Prof. Roy H. Campbell.
Pictured left to right: ICSSP program director Dr. Masooda Bashir; 2010 scholarship recipients Suraj R. Malhotra, William G. Leonard, Joseph K. Leong, and Brett M. Stevens; and ICSSP principal investigator Prof. Roy H. Campbell.
Pictured left to right: ICSSP program director Dr. Masooda Bashir; 2010 scholarship recipients Suraj R. Malhotra, William G. Leonard, Joseph K. Leong, and Brett M. Stevens; and ICSSP principal investigator Prof. Roy H. Campbell.

The winners were selected from a competitive pool of applicants following a review process designed to identify students with the greatest potential to succeed in careers related to information trust. Dr. Masooda Bashir, who is ITI's Assistant Director for Social Trust Initiatives and the program director of the ICSSP program, praised the recipients. "I congratulate each of the students who were awarded this scholarship," she said. "The scholarship provides a unique opportunity for College of Engineering students to specialize in information assurance and become future leaders in this field."

The scholarship recipients have a broad range of technical interests and career goals, but all of them are looking forward to the benefits of participating in the ICSSP program. "There will always be people trying to pose threats to computer systems or write malicious software," said Leong. "So there will always be a need for people to try to understand and respond to these threats. The chance to work in the Information Trust Institute with some great faculty, and be connected to a prestigious program, is extremely exciting. Since cyber security is a relatively new field, it will be really nice to have ITI's deep well of knowledge and experience behind me."

ICSSP was created last year with $1.25 million in funding from the Federal Cyber Service: Scholarship for Service (SFS) program of the National Science Foundation. SFS's mission is to increase the number of students entering the fields of computer security and information assurance, with the ultimate objective of improving the U.S. government's ability to protect its own information infrastructure.

Each participating student will receive a scholarship and stipend covering the last two years of undergraduate study, and in exchange will commit to work for two years following graduation as an information assurance specialist in the federal government.

Professor Roy Campbell of the Department of Computer Science and ITI at Illinois is the principal investigator of ICSSP research. ICSSP scholarships will be awarded annually, and applications will be due in the spring for scholarships beginning in the fall. Interested students can visit the ITI web site at www.iti.illinois.edu for more information.

September 10, 2010


Share this story

This story was published September 10, 2010.