Auburn University has been awarded a $4.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation to help address a shortage of public sector cybersecurity professionals.

The award is part of NSF’s CyberCorps Scholarship for Service program that provides students with scholarships and stipends to fund their education in a cybersecurity field in return for service to a government agency after graduation.

A longtime participant in the program, Auburn plans to use the new grant to expand its involvement in recruiting students from underrepresented populations and raise cybersecurity awareness in Alabama communities.

Auburn’s program is open to undergraduate and graduate students studying computer science, software engineering, computing engineering, wireless engineering or electrical engineering. The program is overseen by David Umphress, the COLSA Corporation Cyber Security and Information Assurance Professor and director of the Auburn Cyber Research Center, and Dean Hendrix, associate professor of computer science and software engineering.