ECSU’s New Homeland Security Research Grant Aimed at Recruiting Minorities, Women

Dr. Shyamal Das, ECSU’s Homeland Security Program Professor and Coordinator, has secured a $16,975 undergraduate research program grant from the University of North Carolina System.  The grant will fund activities to integrate data science with Homeland Security through a new course named Terrorism, and support a joint project between ECSU and Fayetteville State University (FSU).

According to Annemarie Delgado, ECSU’s Director of Sponsored Programs, Contracts and Grants, the two universities created the collaboration to incorporate STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) components into social science disciplines.  Social science majors will be exposed to using data science in the global security industry.

ECSU’s Dr. Das and FSU’s Dr. Sambit Bhaachariya, Computer Science Professor, received a total of $20,908 from the UNC System.  ECSU will receive $16,975 to infuse basic data science content into the Homeland Security course.

During ECSU’s homeland security class, students will write and execute Python code (programming language) through Google Colab a web-based interface.  This collaboration platform is well-suited to data analysis and computer algorithm education.

The programming code written by ECSU students will be shared with FSU students through Jupyter Notebook.  Jupyter Notebook is a web application that allows a person to create and share documents that contain live code, equations, visualizations, and narratives of texts. FSU students will utilize the social science notebooks in their two courses titled Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Introduction to Data Science.

“We hope to attract more women and minority students to the security sector,” said Dr. Das.  “This prestigious award is a wonderful opportunity to expand our innovative curriculum to enhance the research skills of our students, which will lead to future career prospects.”