NYU Tandon and Bridgewater Associates Tackle Acute Shortage of Minority Groups in Cybersecurity

BROOKLYN, New York, Wednesday, August 22, 2018 – The numbers speak for themselves:

• The shortfall of cybersecurity experts will grow to 1.8 million worldwide by 2022.
• Already, the United States needs 200,000 more than are available.
• Today’s information security workforce — 89 percent male and 68.5 percent white — leaves untapped a huge talent pool.

On August 31, two leading cybersecurity educational and financial institutions will take steps to widen that pipeline. The NYU Tandon School of Engineering will award an initial round of scholarships, funded by Bridgewater Associates, a global leader in institutional portfolio management and the largest hedge fund in the world, to students from under-represented minority groups enrolled in its groundbreaking Cyber Fellows online master’s degree program.

The presentation by Bridgewater will take place during a welcome event for the inaugural cohort of 109 New York Cyber Fellows enrolled in NYU Tandon’s unique, affordable online cyber security master’s degree program developed with New York City Cyber Command (NYC3) and supported by elite businesses. The Cyber Fellows mission — to address the acute shortage of highly trained technical security professionals — will be advanced by the Bridgewater Scholarships, which are accompanied by Bridgewater’s commitment to ensure that the scholarship students spend time with experts in the field and to provide additional professional opportunities. 

Forty percent of the first cohort of Cyber Fellows identify as members of underrepresented groups, including women, but diversity remains a major challenge — and opportunity.

“We will welcome our partners — the first Cyber Fellows, industry advisors, and New York City — in this unique initiative to quickly scale up the number of technical experts capable of protecting our personal lives, critical infrastructure, and national security,” said Professor Nasir Memon, associate dean for online learning. “The technology behind online learning creates an opportunity like never before to quickly educate highly skilled computer scientists, and the support from Bridgewater Associates will open opportunities to groups that are often excluded.”

“The Bridgewater Scholarship represents a meaningful alliance between Bridgewater Associates and the NYU Tandon School of Engineering with the shared goal of advancing the knowledge and careers of underrepresented minority students in cybersecurity,” said Bridgewater Chief Security Officer Richard Falkenrath. “We are delighted to be involved in this significant program and to present the scholarship to this year’s winners. “

“The under-participation by large segments of our society represents a loss of opportunity for individuals, a loss of talent in the workforce, and a loss of creativity in shaping the future of cybersecurity,” said International Consortium of Minority Cybersecurity Professionals President Aric K. Perminter. “Not only is it a basic equity issue, but it threatens our global economic viability as a nation. The Bridgewater Scholarship underscores the importance of our mission to provide innovative, effective and timely solutions to the cybersecurity demands of employers.”

Five Bridgewater Scholarships will be awarded to the initial cohort, with 25 more slated for the 2019 academic year. They will halve the tuition paid for the Cyber Fellows program — already one of the most affordable master’s degree programs in the field, thanks to scholarships of 75 percent from New York University. With the combined scholarships from NYU and Bridgewater, this year’s Bridgewater Scholarship winners will pay only $7,500 in tuition for the entire master’s degree program.

In addition to affordability, the New York Cyber Fellows program seeks to rapidly expand the talent pool through a number of unique elements:

• Advisors from leading businesses and NYC3 help shape the curriculum and engage students in real-world problems to ensure that graduates emerge with the skills most needed by industry and government.
• Cyber Fellows get exclusive access to speakers, events, and mentorships provided by business partners and NYC3, the agency that leads the City of New York’s cyber defense efforts. The advising institutions will also offer internship and employment opportunities, and capstone projects will link student research projects to these institutions.
• NYC3 will offer Cyber Fellows access to the NYC3 Cyber Range — a virtual laboratory with realistic simulation for hands-on training and development.
• Cyber Fellows get year-round access to Capture the Flag hacking challenges originally developed by professionals and students for the world’s largest student-led cybersecurity competition, NYU Tandon’s CSAW (Cyber Security Awareness Worldwide).
• A free five-year subscription will allow graduates to audit the newest versions of the online courses they took as Cyber Fellows — important because coursework typically updates every semester, as new threats emerge.

The current Cyber Fellows program is structured as a part-time curriculum to accommodate working professionals, and is now also available full-time. For those without a background in computer science, NYU Tandon offers the Bridge to Tandon to qualified Cyber Fellows applicants. It provides the foundation they need to apply to a rigorous master’s degree program in cybersecurity – within 26 weeks and for $1,500.

About the New York University Tandon School of Engineering

The NYU Tandon School of Engineering dates to 1854, the founding date for both the New York University School of Civil Engineering and Architecture and the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute (widely known as Brooklyn Poly). A January 2014 merger created a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a tradition of invention and entrepreneurship and dedicated to furthering technology in service to society. In addition to its main location in Brooklyn, NYU Tandon collaborates with other schools within NYU, one of the country’s foremost private research universities, and is closely connected to engineering programs at NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai. It operates Future Labs focused on start-up businesses in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn and an award-winning online graduate program. For more information, visit engineering.nyu.edu.

About Bridgewater Associates

Bridgewater Associates is a global leader in institutional portfolio management with more than $160 billion in assets under management. Named fifth most important private company in the U.S. by Fortune, the firm has made more money for clients than any other hedge fund since inception in 1975, according to LCH Investments. Bridgewater is known for being an industry-leading innovator, having been the first firm to manage currency overlay strategies, the first global inflation bond manager, one of the first managers to separate alpha from beta and offer products based on each, and was the first to advise the U.S. government on the creation of Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities. Located in Westport, CT., Bridgewater manages portfolios for a wide array of institutional clients globally, including public and corporate pension funds, foreign governments and central banks, university endowments and charitable foundations.