|
Certificate of Advanced
Study in Systems Assurance
The Department
of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Syracuse University
offers a Certificate of Advanced Study in Systems Assurance,
established in concert with the Systems
Assurance Institute. This Certificate program reflects our strength
in the formal and rigorous analysis of systems and in experimental
systems. The courses cover the wide spectrum of system assurance,
including the theoretical foundations, the synthesis of assured
software and hardware, and the deployment of large-scale systems.
This Certificate of
Advanced Study in Systems Assurance (CASSA) fits within the scope
of the Computer Engineering
(CE) and Computer Science
(CS) Master's programs. To receive this Certificate, students must
be enrolled in either the CE or the CS program and be accepted
into the Certificate program. More details appear below.
What is Systems Assurance?
The National Security
Agency defines Information Assurance as the use of
"[i]nformation
operations ... [that] protect and defend information and information
systems by ensuring their availability, integrity, authentication,
confidentiality, and nonrepudiation. This includes providing for
restoration of information systems by incorporating protection,
detection, and reaction capabilities."
At SAI, our concept of
Systems Assurance extends this definition by emphasizing the
need for high confidence that a system behaves correctly,
including its availability, integrity, confidentiality, and scalability.
Educational Objectives
and Desired Outcomes
SAI's educational purpose
is to prepare students to design, develop, and deploy complex systems
with confidence in the systems' ability to meet assurance requirements.
Our goal is that students who receive this Certificate will have developed
a broad background in security and information assurance, distinguishing
themselves by their ability to:
- Analyze, synthesize,
and make judgments based on engineering and computer science principles;
and
- Use analytical
techniques to evaluate the implications of policies, standards,
and procedures; the ramifications of changes; and the potential
dangers of refinements.
In designing the curriculum
for the Certificate of Advanced Study in Systems Assurance, we focused
on our expectations for those students who successfully complete our
program. Our goal was to develop a comprehensive and coherent collection
of courses to ensure the following three educational outcomes:
- Students comprehend
the concepts underlying security and system assurance.
- Students can apply
those concepts to construct assured systems.
- Students can critically
analyze and evaluate systems' conformance to their requirements.
The CASSA program builds
on foundations established in standard undergraduate Computer Engineering
and Computer Science programs. Incoming students are expected to have
undergraduate-level mastery of discrete mathematics, predicate calculus,
algorithms, networking, and operating systems.
To be admitted to
the CASSA program, students must first be accepted to---or currently
enrolled in---either the Computer Engineering (CE) or the Computer
Science (CS) Master's Program. See the How to Apply
section for further information on program admission.
All students are bound
by all requirements of their home programs, such as GPA requirements
or project/thesis requirements. In addition, each student must satisfy
the following CASSA-specific requirements:
The following descriptions
are from the official Graduate Course Catalog. Links (where provided)
point to the web pages for the most recent offering of the courses.
The Certificate of Advanced
Study in Systems Assurance (CASSA) is available only to students who
are enrolled in the Computer Engineering or Computer Science Master's
programs. In addition, students must be accepted into the CASSA program.
To
apply, send the CASSA application to
the following address:
For Additional Information
If you have additional
questions about the Certificate of Advanced Study in Systems Assurance,
please email Dr. Susan Older at sueo@ecs.syr.edu.
|
