NSU Designated as Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education

March 31, 2005

Nova Southeastern University Designated as Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education

FORT LAUDERDALE-DAVIE, Fla. — Nova Southeastern University (NSU) was designated this month as an official National Center for Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security.

The largest private, non-profit university in the state, NSU was one of eight universities nationwide to receive the designation of Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education for the academic years 2005 through 2008. The university joins a select group of 67 institutions in 27 states to be awarded this distinction, including Boston University, George Washington University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Oklahoma State University, and the United States Air Force Academy.

“Commitment to the field of information assurance education is essential to producing a growing number of professionals with the skills needed to improve the protection of the National Information Infrastructure,” wrote NSA Information Assurance (IA) Director Daniel G. Wolf in a letter to NSU President Ray Ferrero, Jr., JD.

The NSA and Department of Homeland Security will present President Ferrero with a certificate at the 9 th Annual Conference of the Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education in Atlanta on June 7.

“We are extremely proud of this prestigious designation from the federal government,” Ferrero said. “Our university has been and continues to be dedicated to reducing vulnerability in our national information infrastructure by promoting higher education in IA, supporting important research in this field, and producing a growing number of professionals with IA expertise in various disciplines.”

Keeping in line with President Bush’s National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, NSU and other Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education are charged with promoting higher education in information assurance and producing more professionals to work in the field of information security.

NSU will work to develop the latest strategies to secure information systems and help others throughout the region better identify vulnerabilities in their networks.

“We’ve been expanding our academic programs, research and activities in IA for several years and look forward to taking on the responsibility to support IA activities in the region, working with industry, local colleges and universities, and beyond geographic boundaries, ” said Edward Lieblein, Ph.D, the dean of NSU’s Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences. Lieblein, a former senior official for mission-critical computer systems at the Pentagon, led NSU’s effort to gain the national honor.

Currently 15 doctoral students are working on dissertations in information assurance, and NSU has established one of the region’s only information assurance laboratories, containing a super-computer that will be used for research and development.

In 2003, the university created the Center for Information Protection, Higher Education, and Research, which provides information and guidance to government, industry, non-profit organizations, and individuals attempting to solve information security problems. Additionally, over the last few years NSU faculty authored 16 papers regarding IA. Last fall, NSU became one of several schools nationwide to have it’s curriculum in information security certified by the NSA under the Information Assurance Courseware Evaluation Program..

Nova Southeastern University has more than 23,000 students and is the largest independent institution of higher education in the Southeast, and the 8th largest independent institution nationally. NSU awards associate's, bachelor's, master's, educational specialist, doctoral, and first-professional degrees in a wide range of fields. The institution also enjoys an excellent reputation for its programs for families offered through the Mailman Segal Institute for Early Childhood Studies and University School, a pre-kindergarten through 12th grade private, college preparatory school.