Report on Annual Regional Information Assurance Symposia

Abstract : One goal of the Networked Systems Survivability Program of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) is to transition information assurance courseware, materials, and a curriculum on survivability and information assurance to various departments at institutions of higher education in the United States. To accomplish this, the SEI utilizes partnerships that leverage the strengths of the SEI and the strengths of its partner educational institutions. The SEI builds upon the partners' existing trusted relationships and infrastructure, rather than building a new infrastructure. This partnership approach sustains the incorporation of new and evolving materials by the partners, and is more cost-effective for all parties. The SEI seeks to strengthen the information assurance capacity of these "hub" educational partner institutions, which are capable of then refining and (in the future) transitioning educational materials and courses to other educational institutions in their region (termed an Information Assurance Regional Collaborative Cluster). This second-level transition helps to increase the educational capacity in information assurance in the United States. Since 2004, the SEI has established three Regional Collaborative Clusters (RCCs) and their associated hub educational transition partners across the nation. A key component of each RCC is the Annual Regional Information Assurance Symposia co-hosted by the SEI and that region's hub educational transition partner. In the initial 14-month period (Feb 2004-Apr 2005), the prototype RCC, the Mid-Atlantic RCC, has held two successful annual symposia and a third symposium is scheduled. The Southern California and Southern Texas RCCs also have held a successful initial symposia. This paper reports on these annual regional symposia by describing the RCC concept, the SEI approach, and the results to date.