iSchool faculty and alumnus receive NSF award to develop curriculum for Security Assured Health Informatics
The University of Pittsburgh's School of Information Sciences (iSchool) congratulates iSchool faculty Drs. James Joshi, Konstantinos Pelechrinis, Balaji Palanisamy, Prashant Krishnamurthy, David Tipper and Michael Spring along with School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS) faculty members iSchool alumnus Dr. Bambang Parmanto (PhD'92; MSIS'96) and Dr. Leming Zhou on receiving an award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The $897,055 award is for "A Curriculum for Security Assured Health Informatics," a proposed joint curriculum of the iSchool and SHRS. Dr. Rasu Shrestha from UPMC will serve as industry consultant on the project.
The project will focus on the development of "an integrated curriculum on Security Assured Healthcare Informatics" that will "prepare high caliber professionals with comprehensive Health Information Management and Information Assurance expertise to address the critical and immediate need for a workforce trained to secure America's cyberspace." The project work will focus on curriculum design and implementation at undergraduate as well as graduate levels in both the iSchool and SHRS.
Consistently recognized for its excellence in training cybersecurity experts, in February 2014 Pitt was ranked 7th on a list of schools nationwide for its cybersecurity program. More recently, in June 2014, Pitt was designated a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance/Cyber Defense Research (CAE-R) by the National Security Administration (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The iSchool is home to the Laboratory for Education and Research on Security Assured Information Systems (LERSAIS), led by James Joshi, who serves as the Principal Investigator on this NSF grant. LERSAIS has been central to the establishment of a premier research program on security and the development of high quality education in security and information assurance at Pitt.