Kathleen Tuck (Boise State Communications and Marketing): With funding from the National Science Foundation, Boise State will begin offering a nine-week summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site this summer, focused on software security. The REU will be based in the Department of Computer Science.
The grant will support groups of 10 undergraduate students each summer for three years as they develop confidence as researchers and scientists. Five of the students selected each year will be from Boise State, and another five will be from other universities across the nation. In addition to tutorials and workshops, selected students will participate in field trips to local industry.
Students may apply through March 31. Each student selected will receive a total stipend of $4,500, housing, meals and reimbursement of travel expenses from their home school to Boise State. The program runs from June 1-July 31, 2015.
As a sub-field of cybersecurity, software security is an increasingly urgent national priority — particularly in the Treasure Valley, which is home to a number of software companies. Several recent high-profile cyber-attacks can be traced back to software vulnerabilities.
“This new REU site will provide undergraduate students with a competitive research experience and is aimed at motivating them to pursue graduate studies in this important field,” said Dianxiang Xu, professor of computer science and principal investigator for the program.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. CNS-1461133. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.