Cyber Center receives $530,000 to create AI curriculum
By Nana Amanfu, contributing writer
Towson University’s Cyber4All Center was awarded a grant of $530,000 by the National Science Foundation which will be used to build a curriculum in Cyber AI. This will consist of two different facets of Cyber AI: Securing AI and Using AI Tools.
In a detailed “stone man” draft Director of the Cyber Center Blair Taylor, expounded on the purpose of the grant. “[The National Security Agency] are looking to define a program in Cyber AI,” Taylor said.
The program is broken up into different topics referred to as Knowledge Units (KUs), most of which did not exist until the Cyber Center conducted workshops with other professionals to brainstorm what the program would look like and how it would eventually be used.
Three workshops—hosting roughly 150 faculty nationwide—were held to further develop the curriculum. Among attendees were Paige Zaleppa, an adjunct professor currently pursuing her PhD and Sajidul Islam Sajid, a Professor of the Department of Computer and Information Sciences, both of which are Towson faculty.
Zaleppa and Sajid worked in the leadership cohort during these workshops, where they brought in their technical approach and expertise in AI.
“[We] carefully analyzed whether each proposed KU is making sense or not, whether some can be purged or refined, or if any critical topics were overlooked,” Sajid said.
The grant was awarded in March of this year, giving the department a narrow timeframe to draft the final curriculum. However, this hasn’t stopped them, as the final result will be presented in St. Louis this October. The Cyber Center has an ambitious goal for this program to be piloted in the spring by other universities.
The grant was awarded by the National Science Foundation in partnership with the National Security Agency. The goal is for it to work similar to the CyberCorps Scholarships for Service, aiming to attract the most qualified in AI in order to work for federal or state agencies.
AI was not only the subject of the program, but also a contributor. Zaleppa had the opportunity to build an AI chat box, who named itself “Alex.” This AI companion was built in collaboration with the other leaders who attended the workshop. Alex is even named in the document draft as a coauthor.
Both Sajid and Zaleppa expressed similar views in what they enjoyed most about this process.
“Just getting to work with [other faculty] on something that is really kind of on the bleeding edge and being able to help contribute to all those things that I’m teaching my students and even I’m learning,” Zaleppa said.
Taylor, Zaleppa and Sajid are among many leaders doing groundbreaking work, not only for Towson, but for the future of CyberAI.
“There’s only 20 schools that have the Cyber [Security] Operations designation, so it allows Towson to take another leadership position in Cyber AI, and our programs will soon follow,” Blair said.
