U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand visited Stony Brook to meet with the department’s cybersecurity faculty, students, and other university leadership on Friday, November 15th, 2024. During her visit, Gillibrand encouraged students to apply to the DoD Cyber Service Academy scholarship program, which provides full college tuition in return for public service in the Department of Defense or the Intelligence Community. 

Gillibrand also discussed Stony Brook’s current cybersecurity research efforts, which have led to the university being designated by the NSA as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity for Cyber Research for its excellence in doctoral research and cybersecurity education. This allows faculty and students to participate in various government programs, including government scholarships and fellowships like the Cyber Service Academy.

The Cyber Service Academy scholarship program includes:

1. A scholarship covering the full cost of tuition, select books and fees, a stipend for room and board, purchase of a laptop, and more;
2. Multiple areas of study including cybersecurity, cyber operations, digital and multimedia forensics, and computer crime investigations;
3. A service commitment for a period equivalent to the length of a recipient’s scholarship that starts after graduation;
4. Opportunities to serve throughout the DoD and the Intelligence Community.

The Department of Computer Science has been heavily involved in cybersecurity research over the past two decades. The department is home to the National Security Institute, which has nine cyber security faculty, approximately 30 doctoral students, and several million dollars in research expenditures annually. Recent doctoral graduates from the group have gone on to work for top tech/finance companies such as Meta, Google, Oracle, IBM, Cloudflare, NTT Research, Bloomberg, and Jane Street Capital and have joined the faculty at institutions such as Yale University and the University of Illinois at Chicago.