Center for Systems Assurance
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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 Center
for Systems Assurance. 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.
Due to the research and education efforts of CSA, the
National
Security Agency designated Syracuse University as a Center of Academic
Excellence for Information Assurance Education.
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 CSA, 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
CSA'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 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. Selection is competitive: we expect to admit approximately 20
students per year.
The application process depends upon your current enrollment status:
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 .
Copyrights © 2000 Center
for Systems Assurance. All rights reserved
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