GAANN Fellowship

The Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, University of Florida, has received four U.S. Department of Education Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) grants under the area of Computer Systems Security. These grants support fellowships for U.S. citizens as they pursue their doctoral degrees in fields deemed to be “areas of national need”.

The College of Engineering invites graduate students to apply to the GAANN Fellowship program. Students from traditionally underrepresented populations, including women and minority populations, are strongly encouraged to apply.

GAANN Fellowship Details

The University of Florida GAANN programs seek to train U.S. students to conduct research and teaching in areas deemed strategically important to the nation’s competitiveness. The program aims to engage doctoral students in multidisciplinary, transformative experiences that will help them become leaders in research and education. The unique objectives of GAANN program are to:

Immerse Fellows in transformative research.
Provide supervised teaching experiences as well as instruction on effective teaching techniques.
Enable greater numbers of women and minority students to pursue interdisciplinary doctoral study.
Prepare fellows to pursue careers in academia and become industry leaders.

For further details about GAANN, visit the official program page at http://www2.ed.gov/programs/gaann/index.html

GAANN in Computer Systems Security

Computing devices are everywhere starting from computers, tablets and smartphones to cars and airplanes. Our lives depend on these systems. As a result, these systems are primary targets of hackers for political, financial and other reasons. It is an important national need to develop workforce that can develop countermeasures against these attacks. This GAANN will seek to establish an inter-disciplinary computer systems security program at the University of Florida to provide fellowships to outstanding graduate students who demonstrate financial need and plan to pursue the doctoral degree in the Departments of Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) and Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE).

Specific objectives of the project include –

Engaging Fellows in inter-disciplinary research and instruction in order to foster a diverse, well-trained pool of technology leaders in the area of computer systems security.
Increase the numbers of underrepresented minorities and women pursuing doctoral studies in the field of computing sciences and engineering with a focus on security.
Prepare Fellows for careers in teaching and research in academia, maintain a very high retention rate of GAANN Fellows to graduation.
Ensure that federal regulations and federal intent are followed precisely in the recruitment and retention efforts of the GAANN Fellows.

Application Process

Minimum Requirements

U.S Citizen or Permanent U.S. Resident
Admission to the Ph.D. program at University of Florida.
Excellent academic record.
Demonstrated financial need (see http://www.sfa.ufl.edu/basics)
Women and underrepresented minority candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

Application Process

Apply for FAFSA – Free Application for Federal Student Aid (https://fafsa.ed.gov) (see http://www.sfa.ufl.edu/applying/fafsa-tips/)
Essay on why you should be considered for the GAANN program.