DOE Funds UAlbany-Moscow Information Security Collaboration

Joint online curriculum to offer more opportunities for student exchanges

School of Business Associate Professor Sanjay Goel

ALBANY, N.Y. (November 02, 2010) -- UAlbany School of Business Associate Professor Sanjay Goel has won a $389,777 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to develop joint online courses in information security that will lead to new student exchanges between UAlbany and Bauman Moscow State Technical University. The grant will be matched by separate but parallel funding from the Russian Ministry of Education and Science. The program is aimed at attracting higher-level undergraduate and graduate students without imposing any additional tuition-based fees.

"This will create more opportunities for students," said Goel, a faculty member in the information technology management department and director of research for the New York State Center for Information Forensics and Assurance. "Through this effort, we hope to both improve language and cultural understanding between the United States and Russia, as well as enhance knowledge acquisition and sharing between faculty and students at the two institutions."

Developing Joint Information Security Studies

A certificate program will be available to UAlbany students, with some classes offered over the summer and the rest online. International students from Moscow will take summer classes here and finish up in Moscow. The online courses will include video-recorded lectures with subtitles and the creation of bilingual case studies, exercises, and other online assessment tools.

The goals of the project include:

• Train the workforce to address security problems at the international level;
• Develop a joint security curriculum between BMSTU and UAlbany;
• Bridge ideological differences in handling information security incidents; and,
• Increase cooperation between the two institutions in research and teaching.

The grant is from the U.S. Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education. The first year of the project will involve the exchanges of project members, curriculum development, and creation of online courses. Years two and three will involve student and faculty exchanges as well as delivering and refining the curriculum.

Cyber Security Research

The University at Albany has had a strong relationship with Moscow State University in cyber security research for the last six years. The two universities have signed a memorandum of understanding to conduct joint research and interact closely on international issues in cyber security. This grant strengthens the growing relationship between UAlbany and universities in Moscow.

Those included in this effort include UAlbany doctoral student Damira Pon; Olga Zinovieva, director, Center on Russia and the U.S., SUNY; and at UAlbany, Kevin Williams, dean of Graduate Studies, James Pasquill, director of Study Abroad and Exchanges, and Bill Roberson, director of the Institute for Teaching, Learning, and Academic Leadership (ITLAL).

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