The basics:
- Kean University receives $500,000 NSF CyberAICorps grant
- Project will develop CyberAI academic pathways
- Students will gain coursework, research, hands-on training
- Three-year project will prepare students for the CyberAI workforce
Kean University announced Sept. 30 that it received a $500,000 grant to further develop programs that will help build the future cyberAI workforce.
The funding is provided by the Innovation Track of the National Science Foundation’s CyberAICorps Scholarship for Service program. The initiative is designed to support educational programs that integrate AI and cybersecurity training, according to the NSF.
The agency added that “CyberAI refers to using AI in cybersecurity as well as providing security and resilience for AI systems.”
Daehan Kwak, associate professor in Kean’s Department of Computer Science and Technology, is leading a three-year project titled CyberAI Innovation: Building Academic Pathways for the CyberAI Workforce. According to the Union university, the project addresses:
- Using AI to improve cybersecurity
- Securing the AI systems themselves
The grant announcement comes as AI safety has been thrust into the global spotlight. CrowdStrike’s 2026 Global Threat Report noted, “In 2025, AI-enabled adversaries increased attacks by 89% year-over-year.”
The report added, “As defenses became more sophisticated, threat actors increasingly exploited the inherent trust in supply chain partners, legitimate software, internal systems, and employees to gain initial access and move undetected.”
AI industry leaders themselves – including the CEOs of Anthropic andOpenAI – are also calling on world leaders to heighten regulations surrounding the fast-moving technology, according to media reports.
Arming the future workforce
Kean’s CyberAI Innovation project will create CyberAI academic pathways and introduce coursework, hands-on learning and research, the university said.
“The most impactful thing is that the project will help build a new workforce capable of both using AI for cybersecurity and, of course, protecting our AI systems from emerging threats,” Kwak said in a statement.
Co-principal investigators are: Stanley Mierzwa, director of Kean’s Center for Cybersecurity, and Bin Hu, Navya Martin Kollapally and Boyang Li, assistant professors in the Department of Computer Science and Technology.
Making the grade
Kean University recently ranked No. 317 out of the 422 top national schools named to U.S. News & World Report’s 2027 Best Colleges list. Find out all the higher education institutions in New Jersey that made the list here.
The project will involve students across campus departments, Kean noted.
“Kean is preparing students for the technologies shaping our future,” said George Chang, dean of The Dorothy and George Hennings College of Science, Mathematics and Technology. Chang added that the school’s CyberAI project combines education, research and applied learning.
In August 2025, President Lamont Repollet announced that Kean was the first university in New Jersey to launch a Bachelor of Science in AI.
“We are evolving both what we teach and how we teach it to prepare our students for a world where technology, creativity, and human ingenuity work hand in hand,” Repollet said at the time.
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