- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Awarded $1.96 Million Workforce Development Grant to Support a Regional Cyber Learning Network

John Hill — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 14:26:38 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has received a $1.96 million workforce development grant to fund further development of the Cyber Learning Network (CyberLearN) – a regional cyber-learning partnership with six other schools in the University of Arkansas System to address Arkansas’s talent gap in cybersecurity. The CyberLearN partners include ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, ��Vlog��ý Pine Bluff, ��Vlog��ý – Pulaski Technical College, ��Vlog��ý Cossatot, ��Vlog��ý Hope-Texarkana, ��Vlog��ýCC Batesville, and ��Vlog��ýCC Morrilton. The Forge Institute, the Arkansas Center for Data Sciences, and SmartResume are also collaborating on the initiative. Gov. Asa Hutchinson awarded a total of $7.9 million in Large-Scale Workforce Development Grants to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock and eight other organizations during a March 15 press conference at the Jonesboro Chamber of Commerce. The grants were funded by the , a division of the Arkansas Department of Commerce. “We don’t have an unlimited source of funds in Arkansas for workforce training, so we want to invest it wisely,” Gov. Hutchinson said. “And you do that by partnering with industry to guide our training, our funding, so that it results in jobs.” CyberLearN leverages shared resources for the purposes of expanding and diversifying cyber workforce education in Arkansas. The consortium will provide more equitable access to cybersecurity education for Arkansas learners, aligning freshman and sophomore cybersecurity curriculum with ABET, a national accreditation board, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology Standards. CyberLearN partners will share instruction and create a common learning experience through standardized, hybrid-flexible learning spaces that will utilize the cloud-based . “��Vlog��ý Little Rock is proud to lead in creating the Cyber Learning Network, which will put Arkansas on the map for cybersecurity workforce education,” said Dr. Erin Finzer, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs. “This new consortium among academic and nonprofit partners will serve as a model to provide collaborative education and training opportunities across the state. We thank Gov. Hutchinson and the Office of Skills Development for this investment in Arkansas’s economic security and for providing our state with cyber talent for many years to come.” CyberLearN will drive economic development opportunities by providing robust talent pathways and creating opportunities to spur creative innovations. Arkansas currently has more than 3,000 unfilled cybersecurity positions listed on LinkedIn, and that number is expected to continue to grow. Now that Arkansas’s broadband initiatives have provided more internet access across the state, there are more opportunities for cybersecurity professionals to work remotely, which can provide a boost for rural communities. The workforce development grant builds on the commitment and spirit of last year’s ��Vlog��ý System announcement of a $900,000 CARES Act Recovery Assistance grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) to boost the state’s statewide workforce recovery from the economic impact of COVID-19 growth through the creation of the ��Vlog��ý System Workforce Response and Training Center. That grant included nine ��Vlog��ý System institutions, led by the Arkansas Economic Development Institute (AEDI) at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, to collect and analyze statewide workforce data and use outcomes to provide existing and bolstered education and training efforts through all seven of the ��Vlog��ý System’s two-year colleges, along with two colleges of technology at the University of Arkansas at Monticello (��Vlog��ýM). “This is a shining example of the synergy that’s possible by harnessing ��Vlog��ý System resources in a collaborative and innovative fashion to continue bolstering the growth of a world-class, highly skilled workforce in Arkansas,” said Chris Thomason, vice president for planning and development for the ��Vlog��ý System. “When we’re able to pool the resources and talent within the ��Vlog��ý System close to Arkansas citizens and in our communities, the momentum that’s created can have a much larger impact on the state’s economic growth and within Arkansas families.” In order to support this economic and workforce development potential, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock and its academic partners are providing stackable certificates, which are a set of professional credentials that can be stacked into more advanced certificate and degree programs or may be earned by Arkansas workers wishing to upskill or reskill. Stackable certificates are an innovative way for institutions of higher education to serve working students by providing them with distinct skill sets and manageable motivators on their way to a two-year or four-year degree. “COVID has changed a lot of how we operate in higher education, and this program shows a positive adaptation in meeting the needs of today’s learners,” said Dr. Philip Huff, assistant professor of cybersecurity at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. “The workforce needed in cybersecurity is so great right now, and we can’t simply tell the industry to wait four more years for us to provide you with a pipeline of talent when they need it yesterday. These stackable certificates address the immediate need, and also open up new academic paths if a student chooses to continue their education.” The certificate programs, the first of which is pending approval for the Fall 2022 semester, include two certificates of proficiency in cybersecurity fundamentals that “stack” into a technical certificate and associate degree. By completing these foundational certificates, learners will be ready to enroll in upper-level specialized certificates in areas like data security, digital forensics, cybersecurity operations, and software security. These certificates are designed to provide college students and workers with a road to lifelong learning with personalized pathways to learn skills that meet both learner and employer needs. “Higher education should seize every viable opportunity to increase efficiency in the delivery of educational services contributing to workforce education. CyberLearN is exactly this kind of opportunity,” Dr. Albert Baker, chair of the Department of Computer Science at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. “It has been, and continues to be, energizing to collaborate on this opportunity to build efficiencies in the development of the Arkansas workforce in the emerging and evermore critically important cybersecurity industry.” While ��Vlog��ý System campuses will provide space and construction and renovation costs for the training operation centers, the grant will provide computer equipment and supplies, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Cyber Arena cloud access for all students, curriculum and instructional design, and tuition and fees for 100 new learners. An additional eight more scholarships will go to instructors from two-year colleges to earn ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s new graduate certificate in cybersecurity education in an effort to expand the cybersecurity teacher workforce in the state. Dr. Steve Cole, chancellor of ��Vlog��ý Cossatot, said one of his biggest worries is how to combat the cyber-attacks that are happening all around the world. This new partnership with CyberLearN will bring education and training opportunities directly to ��Vlog��ý Cossatot and other two-year colleges across the state. Having a skilled workforce that can respond to cyber threats will ensure a resilient economy in Arkansas. “Cybercrime just doesn’t touch large corporations, it even touches the small business owner with one employee,” Cole said. “To combat cybercrime, we must build a workforce of cybersecurity experts, and CyberLearN seeks to address this huge skills gap. Community colleges like ours find it extremely difficult sometimes to start new, technology-rich programs due to the high costs involved and the lack of available instruction, but a collaborative effort like CyberLearN allows us to tap into the talent at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock and the Forge Institute to offer cybersecurity programming in our rural area. I am confident that, without this effort it would be difficult to offer a world-class program like this to many rural parts of the state like ours.”

Khodakovskaya Inducted into Arkansas Research Alliance Academy

John Hill — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 15:28:14 +0000

Dr. Mariya Khodakovskaya, professor of biology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, has been inducted into the (ARA) Academy of Scholars and Fellows. The induction of the new cohort of distinguished scholars and researchers took place during a Dec. 9 ceremony at the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion. The cohort is composed of two new ARA Scholars, which is the recruitment of strategic research talent from outside the state, and six ARA Fellows, which is a recognition of outstanding researchers already residing in the state. “It is a big honor to join the Arkansas Research Alliance,” Khodakovskaya said. “I hope to be an efficient and enthusiastic contributor to cutting-edge interdisciplinary and inter-jurisdictional biological research with a focus on commercialization in Arkansas.” Khodakovskaya, who is also the director of Applied Science Graduate Programs at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, has been honored as an ARA Fellow and will receive a $75,000 grant to continue her outstanding research, which focuses on improvement of agricultural and industrial plants using advanced methods of biotechnology and nanotechnology. “We can celebrate the importance of research and the announcement of a record number of new scholars and fellows that will be doing research in Arkansas,” Gov. Asa Hutchinson said. “As a state, we do support the research of our higher education institutions because it brings innovation, it brings scientific discovery, it brings us steps forward in medical research. Through ground floor innovation, Arkansas research helps existing companies be more competitive and creates new startups, jobs, and patents that boosts the state’s high-tech economy.” The ARA Academy of Scholars and Fellows is made up of research scientists from Arkansas’ six major research institutions: University of Arkansas (U of A), the University of Arkansas for Medical�� Sciences (��Vlog��ýMS), ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, Arkansas State University (A-State), University of�� Arkansas at Pine Bluff (��Vlog��ýPB), and the FDA’s National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR). “ARA continues its mission to build the ARA Academy,” ARA President Jerry Adams said. “The members we’ve added today are truly representative of the enormous scientific talent that ARA is focusing on the future of the state of Arkansas.” Khodakovskaya’s collaborations with material scientists, nanotechnologists, and other plant molecular biologists and biotechnologists resulted in the development of a unique research area in the intersection of plant biology and nanotechnology. She was the first person to demonstrate that carbon-based nanomaterials can affect plants at genomic and metabolomic levels, which activates genes involved in water transport, cell division, and response to environmental stress.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson, left, congratulates Dr. Mariya Khodakovskaya, right, and other Arkansas Research Alliance Academy of Scholars and Fellows members during a ceremony honoring her and seven other new inductees. Photos by Ben Krain.

“Dr. Khodakovskaya is a true pioneer in the area of crop improvement by the application of a wide range of carbon-based nanomaterials,” ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Chancellor Christina Drale said. “She and her research team developed innovative approaches for the enhancement of plant tolerance to environmental stress using advanced methods of genetic engineering, molecular biology, and nanotechnology. The key to her success is a collaborative interdisciplinary approach used in her research.” Khodakovskaya’s recent research with the Arkansas Space Grant Consortium and NASA also holds potential to solve the problem of how to feed astronauts during long-term space exploration missions. An ongoing grant from NASA involves research to discover how to improve sustainability and stress tolerance in plants developed for exploration of Mars. Since 2008, Khodakovskaya has been a principal investigator or co-principal investigator on grants totaling more than $10 million. Her research has been supported by grants from the USDA, Department of Defense, NASA, Arkansas Science and Technology Authority, and Arkansas Space Grant Consortium. She is the founder and CEO of Advanced Plant Technologies, an outgrowth opportunity to commercialize her research products. “Her research is closely linked to the economy of Arkansas,” Chancellor Christina Drale said. “She is a co-principal investigator of a $4.5 million grant funded by NSF-EPSCoR, which is focused on identifying genes and mechanisms to improve resistance to high temperatures of rice, Arkansas’s primary crop.” The additional new ARA Academy members include Philip Massey and Hugh Churchill, both of U of A; Edward Yeh and Alan Tackett, both of ��Vlog��ýMS, Fabricio Medina Bolivar, A-State; Karl Walker, ��Vlog��ýPB; and Laura Schnackenburg, NCTR.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock student earns valuable experience while interning for Gov. Hutchinson’s office

John Hill — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 21:28:57 +0000

Joshua Johnson, a senior management major at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, gained some valuable experience while serving as a summer intern with Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s office. “I wanted to get some networking in and meet influential people around the state, become more knowledgeable about how the governor runs the state, and expand my horizons,” Johnson said. Johnson served in the from June 15 to July 24. Interns are given assignments that include researching topics, managing incoming inquiries, attending legislative interim committee meetings, and writing memos. Johnson spent his internship time speaking with constituents about their concerns and researching topics like mask mandates and the impact of the George Floyd protests. During the internship process, Johnson and all of the interns were given the opportunity to visit the state capital and have lunch at the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion. “I would say the internship helped me when it comes to listening to other points of view,” he said. “It will help me to be open to people who think differently than me. All of the interns had different viewpoints, and we conversed openly about many topics. I think that helps me relate to people better.” Johnson, who has been a member of the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Student Government Association for the past two years, said his work as a senator helped prepare him for the internship.

Joshua Johnson, second from right, is shown with Gov. Asa Hutchinson and his fellow summer interns.

“Being in the Student Government Association, I had to get used to working in a team setting,” Johnson said. “That served me well in my internship. I believe working with my peers in the SGA helped bring those important team skills to my internship.” After he graduates in May, the Little Rock native has plans to get an MBA, perhaps go to law school and possibly enter politics. Whatever the future brings, Johnson is sure the experience he gained and lessons learned from his internship will help him be successful. “I learned a lot of valuable lessons, but there is one that stood out the most,” Johnson said. “Even though the Governor is the head of a state, it’s a team effort. The governor makes the decisions, but he doesn’t run the state all by himself. He has a team of advisors that he consults with before he carries out his agenda.” In the upper right photo, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock student Joshua Johnson completed a summer internship with Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s office. Photo by Ben Krain.

��Vlog��ý Little to develop free cybersecurity curriculum for Arkansas high school students through new partnership with Arkansas Department of Education

Ajani Oyindamola — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 18:28:49 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will help create a free cybersecurity curriculum for Arkansas high school students as part of a new partnership announced Dec. 9 at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s College of Engineering and Information Technology.�� The Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) Office of Computer Science will partner with ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, the Arch Ford Education Service Cooperative’s Virtual Arkansas division, and the University of Central Arkansas to develop a three-year cybersecurity curriculum and course pathway. This curriculum, which is set to begin in the 2020-21 school year, will support teachers and students through increasingly rigorous and relevant cybersecurity concepts leading to more Arkansas students being prepared for industry recognized certifications and to enter post-secondary cybersecurity programs. To support this partnership, ADE is providing $94,500. The grant is part of Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s coding initiative, which is funded with a $2.5 million annual commitment by the Arkansas State Legislature. “Once again, Arkansas’s educational institutions are demonstrating their commitment to providing our students with high quality educational opportunities that will prepare them for the job market they will soon be entering into,” Gov. Hutchinson said. “As our state moves forward in our computer science and computing initiative, we will remain focused on preparing our students for the high paying and open career opportunities that are out there like those in cybersecurity.” Arch Ford Education Service cooperative will subgrant $25,000 to the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Department of Computer Science and the Emerging Analytics Center to facilitate CyberGym existing module expansion and refinement and new module development as approved by the ADE Office of Computer Science.�� Vlog��ý Little Rock’s new CyberGym, an education and simulation model laboratory for cybersecurity learning hosted on the cloud, will provide educational materials for the first two years of the high school cybersecurity classes. The third-year curriculum will be provided by UCA’s Cyber Range. “The CyberGym has been developed by the faculty in computer science along with the team in the Emerging Analytics Center as a set of modules on a broad range of cybersecurity concepts that school teachers and students can then access to enhance their classroom experience,” ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Chancellor Christina Drale said. “With our partners here today, we are providing for all Arkansas K-12 schools a curriculum pipeline in cybersecurity that will provide the skills students need to be prepared for industry recognized certifications and to be prepared to enter post-secondary cybersecurity programs. Preparing Arkansas students for the jobs of tomorrow provides unlimited pathways for their futures.”

��Vlog��ý Little Rock faculty members and students now work in ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s CyberGym. Photo by Ben Krain.

Arch Ford will subgrant an additional $25,000 to the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Department of Computer Science and the Emerging Analytics Center to provide payments to qualified work-study students to provide technical support and content development to Arkansas educators accessing the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock CyberGym system. Dr. Albert Baker, interim chair of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Department of Computer Science, said that more cybersecurity students are needed to fill the state’s growing demand for this high-paying field. Average starting salaries for cybersecurity jobs run from $90,000 to $125,000. With nearly 5,000 cybersecurity jobs in Arkansas, there are more than 1,000 that remain unfilled, Baker said. The new cybersecurity curriculum will be comprised of at least three courses that will provide students instruction in fundamental computer science; introductory through advanced cyber security concepts; online cybersecurity CyberGym modules using the power of Google’s cloud computing services; cybersecurity analyst and specialist tools; and relevant industry identified skills and knowledge expected in the next generation of cybersecurity professionals.�� These courses will be aligned to the ADE Information Security, ADE Advanced Information Security, and National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) standards and will support the students completing the pathway in being prepared to take and pass at least one industry recognized higher level cyber security certification (I.E., CompTIA’s Networking Plus, CompTIA’s Security Plus, CompTIA CySA+) and other interim certifications (I.E., CompTIA’s A+, Microsoft Technology Associate certifications) as deemed appropriate and approved by the Arkansas Department of Education. The courses will also be aligned to the NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework,a national-focused resource that categorizes and describes cybersecurity work. “The greatest cyber-threat to national security is K-12 education,” said Kevin Nolten, director of Academic Outreach for the Cyber Innovation Center and the National Integrated Cyber Education Research Center. “Our responsibility as a state and as educators is to align both standards and curricula to cyber-based workforce roles to ensure that students are graduating high school with not only an awareness of cyber but the knowledge, skills and abilities to close the workforce gap that exists in cyber.”�� The ADE Office of Computer Science will collaborate with Virtual Arkansas and an ADE Office of Computer Science approved team of curriculum writers to develop the curriculum, which will include all the resources needed for a beginning computer science teacher to appropriately instruct students in this high-quality content by Aug. 1, 2020.�� Virtual Arkansas will assign a teacher and provide all courses developed under this agreement through its digital delivery platform beginning in the 2020-21 school year. Virtual Arkansas will also provide this curriculum for all courses in “content only” format at no charge to the school, the teachers, or the students. Virtual Arkansas will update the virtually delivered and “content only” curriculum as necessary in accordance with the ADE Information Security and NICE standards.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

����Vlog��ý Little Rock Awarded $1.96 Million Workforce Development Grant to Support a Regional Cyber Learning Network

Khodakovskaya Inducted into Arkansas Research Alliance Academy

����Vlog��ý Little Rock student earns valuable experience while interning for Gov. Hutchinson’s office

����Vlog��ý Little to develop free cybersecurity curriculum for Arkansas high school students through new partnership with Arkansas Department of Education

- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Awarded $1.96 Million Workforce Development Grant to Support a Regional Cyber Learning Network

��Vlog��ý Little Rock student earns valuable experience while interning for Gov. Hutchinson’s office

��Vlog��ý Little to develop free cybersecurity curriculum for Arkansas high school students through new partnership with Arkansas Department of Education