Professor Memon Takes Part in Forum on Underrepresented Groups in Cybersecurity

On October 4, the International Consortium of Minority Cybersecurity Professionals (ICMCP), in partnership with IBM, hosted an all-day forum on women and minorities in the field of cybersecurity, and included on the list of speakers was Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Nasir Memon, a seminal member of NYU’s multidisciplinary Center for Cybersecurity.

Along with such figures as Sandy Stanar-Johnson, the director of the National Security Agency’s Equal Employment and Opportunity Division, and Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, IBM’s Chief Diversity Officer, Memon helped explore ways in which more underrepresented groups could be attracted to the field, and ways to ensure that they have positive experiences in the cybersecurity workplace. He represented Tandon on a panel entitled “Cracking the Diversity Code,” informing the audience about the school’s efforts towards diversity and inclusiveness — the latest one being A Bridge to NYU Tandon, a program which prepares women and minorities, as well as others who have a nontechnical background, for careers in technology. “U.S. News and World Report does not include diversity when ranking universities, but at Tandon, we’ve always been very proud of our record in that respect,” he said. “We have a high percentage of students eligible for Pell Grants, yet they go on to have some of the highest paying jobs in the nation after graduation.”

Memon concluded to appreciative applause: “A male student who has counted plenty of women and members of other ethnic groups among his classmates simply becomes a better engineer and a better human being.”