New Co-Principal Investigator Added to SFS Grant: Charles Harry

Dr. Charles Harry have been added as Co-Principal Investigators for the Advanced Cybersecurity Experience for Students (ACES) program’s Scholarship for Service grant.

The CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service (SFS) grant is funded through the National Science Foundation to provide educational and professional development funding for exceptional students within the ACES Minor. When receiving this scholarship, the student is given the opportunity to participate in experiential learning funded through the grant, including research and internships with government agencies.

Co-Principal Investigators (Co-PIs) aid the ACES program in demonstrating the myriad of benefits behind cybersecurity education. Harry’s work will contribute to showing how cybersecurity education helps to prepare and employ federal agency employees in cyber fields.

Dr. Charles Harry is an associate research professor in international cybersecurity for both the UMD iSchool and the School of Public Policy. His research focus includes the development of an analytic framework for assessing cybersecurity risk. Aside from his involvement as an ACES faculty member, Harry is the Director of Operations of the Maryland Global Initiative in Cybersecurity (MAGIC) and acts as a senior research associate at the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland in the School of Public Policy. Off campus, Harry is part of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Cyber Advisory Panel.

In teaching ACES students about the intersection between cybersecurity and public policy, Harry stresses that cybersecurity is not only a technical domain.

“Cyberspace itself is a sociotechnical field that blends technical systems with the human processes they support. Understanding how attackers’ motives and tactics create effects in a complex attack surface is critical to understanding the larger emergent impacts on society,” said Harry. “Modern society is increasingly reliant on technical systems to support complex services and understanding how technology and society intertwine is critical for effective policy making that minimize strategic risk. ACES provides students a more holistic approach to the cyber problem providing context to what promises to be a enduring challenge.”

Though Harry has been an ACES instructor for a number of years, his role as Co-Pi will allow him to further integrate himself within the ACES community.

"Over the past 3 years I have had the pleasure of interacting with ACES students both in my course looking at the policy implications of cybersecurity and interacting with students on a variety of research projects,” said Harry, regarding his increased involvement with the program. “I find ACES students highly motivated and eager to build on their technical acumen within the context of broader societal concerns voiced by senior policy makers.”

ACES is thrilled to welcome Dr. Charles Harry to the SFS community and looks forward to make further progress toward training a new generation of cybersecurity professionals.

Published June 8, 2020