• Students Collaborate to Solve Homeland Security Challenges

    In the parlance of homeland security, soft targets are places that are easily accessible to the general public and relatively unprotected. Last month, innovative students from Arizona State University and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas competed in “Hardening Soft Targets” – a DHS-sponsored 3-day event in which students worked directly with experts from DHS, the Phoenix Police Department, industry leaders, and academics.

  • Mathematics Professor and University Researcher Indicted for Grant Fraud

    A federal grand jury in Carbondale, Ill. On Wednesday returned an indictment charging a mathematics professor and researcher at Southern Illinois University – Carbondale (SIUC) with two counts of wire fraud and one count of making a false statement. The prosecution is part of the Justice Department’s ongoing China Initiative. Led by the Department’s National Security Division, the China Initiative is a broad, multi-faceted effort to counter Chinese national security threats and safeguard American intellectual property.

  • UWF Re-Designated as Cybersecurity Regional Hub for the Southeast U.S., with Expanded Mission

    The University of West Florida has been re-designated by the National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security as the Southeast Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity (CAE-C) Regional Hub. The UWF Center for Cybersecurity has served as the Southeast regional hub since 2017, providing leadership in cybersecurity education among colleges and universities in five states and Puerto Rico.

  • DHS S&T Launches Hacking for Homeland Security Program

    DHS S&T is launching Hacking for Homeland Security(H4HS)  to provide DHS with the capability to drive innovative solutions and identify future interns with applied knowledge to work on DHS mission-relevant topics.H4HSis modeled on Hacking for Defense (H4D). The national academic course is taught at 54 universities and represents a new platform for national service, teaching teams of university students how to use modern entrepreneurial tools and techniques to solve critical national security and intelligence community problems at start-up speed.

  • NSA Awards $6 Million for Cybersecurity Workforce Development

    The Purdue University Northwest (PNW) College of Technology has been awarded a grant of $5,971,053 for Cybersecurity Workforce Development from the National Security Agency (NSA). PNW says that with the funded projects, PNW will be able to contribute significantly to national workforce development in the field of AI and cybersecurity. The U.S. Department of Labor reports that the need for IT and cybersecurity professionals is projected to grow 12 percent from 2018 to 2028 with multi-million shortages.

  • Advancing Applied Research in Cybersecurity

    The Forge Institute, along with the University of Arkansas Fayetteville (UA-Fayetteville) and University of Arkansas Little Rock (UA-Little Rock), jointly announced a partnership to advance applied research in areas that support our national defense, including cybersecurity.

  • Creating a National Network of Cybersecurity Institutes

    DHS S&T, in partnership with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), awarded $2 million to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) to develop a plan that CISA can execute to build a national network of cybersecurity technical institutes. “CISA sees the growing cybersecurity workforce shortage in the United States as a national security risk,” said Bryan Ware, CISA assistant director of cybersecurity.

  • Intentional Youth Firearm Injuries Linked to Sociodemographic Factors

    Firearm injuries are a leading and preventable cause of injury and death among youth - responsible for an estimated 5,000 deaths and 22,000 non-fatal injury hospital visits each year in American kids. The researchers  identified distinct risk profiles for individuals aged 21 and younger, who arrived at emergency departments with firearm injuries over an 8-year period.

  • One in Five Colorado High School Students Has Access to Firearms

    Twenty percent of high school students in Colorado have easy access to a handgun, according to a new study. “Our findings highlight that it is relatively easy to access a handgun in Colorado for high school students. This finding, combined with the high prevalence of feeling sad or depressed and suicide attempts, is concerning for the safety of adolescents,” said the lead author of the study.

  • Chinese Presence in U.S. Academic Institutions

    When talking about the intensifying U.S.-China competition, most people think of trade battles, tariffs, human-rights abuses in Xinjiang, the militarization of the South China Sea, China’s growing nuclear arsenal, and similar issues. In many ways, however, U.S. universities and research institutions are a more immediate battleground for the U.S.-China rivalry.

  • Most U.S. Social Studies Teachers Feel Unprepared to Teach Civic Learning, a Gap Contribute to Truth Decay

    Only one in five social studies teachers in U.S. public schools report feeling very well prepared to support students’ civic learning, saying they need additional aid with instructional materials, professional development, and training, according to a RAND Corporation survey.

  • Countries with Advanced Digital Skills and Safety Nets Doing Better in Pandemic, Report Says

    In this year’s Global Competitiveness Report, the World Economic Forum measures the ability of countries to weather and recover from the devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Because of the pandemic and the inability to collect necessary data, country rankings in the report have been suspended. Instead, it examines the factors that help economies better manage and recover from the pandemic.

  • Teaching Anti-Terrorism: How France and England Use Schools to Counter Radicalization

    The murder of the schoolteacher Samuel Paty, beheaded by 18-year-old Abdoullakh Abouyedovich Anzorov in October 2020 after Paty had shown caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad during a civic education lesson, has understandably caused shock and fear among teachers in France. Many teachers were already struggling to manage classroom discussions on sensitive topics such as the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo’s publication of the controversial caricatures. Some now fear for their personal safety.

  • Students of Nuclear Security Have a Problem. Here’s How to Help Them.

    Radioactive materials are attractive targets to thieves and other bad actors. These are rare finds, valuable on the black market and relatively easy to weaponize. New security professionals rarely learn practical skills for protecting these targets until they are on the job at nuclear power plants, research reactors, processing plants and other nuclear facilities.

  • Foreign Students Look Forward to Visa Stability

    International students in the U.S. whose studies and immigration status have undergone changes during President Donald Trump’s administration say they hope their stays will stabilize with President-elect Joe Biden.