Project Grant 2622677

The National Science Foundation Division of Graduate Education awarded the University of Rhode Island $1,407,449 on September 1, 2026, under the STEM Education program (CFDA 47.076) to establish a scholarship-for-service initiative combining graduate education, research, and structured career preparation in the intersection of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.

URI's CyberAICorps Scholarship for Service program will support two cohorts of graduate scholars pursuing the Professional Science Master's in Cybersecurity, each completing a purpose-built CyberAI track featuring two new courses: Securing AI Systems, covering adversarial machine learning, threat modeling of AI deployments, and defenses against model evasion and poisoning; and Applied AI in Cybersecurity, addressing AI-driven threat detection, intelligent log and network traffic analysis, and large language model-based cybersecurity workflows. Scholars will engage in four semesters of structured professional development seminar covering federal job search preparation, cybersecurity and AI competition training, government framework instruction, and K-12 community outreach; complete faculty-mentored research through a two-semester cybersecurity project sequence; and fulfill a qualifying government internship. The program offers four flexible entry pathways including a bridge program.

Work is performed at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, Rhode Island, with a period of performance from September 1, 2026, through August 31, 2029. The award addresses the national shortage of professionals trained at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity, directly supporting government agencies' increasing reliance on AI for threat detection, automated defenses, and incident response.