NSF Support for the 2015 USENIX Security Symposium, Financial Aid; August 2015; Washington, D.C.

This grant funds approximately 20 U.S.-based graduate students to attend the 2015 USENIX Security Symposium (Security '15), a leading forum for advanced professionals from academic and industrial backgrounds to meet and discuss the newest advances in the security of computer systems and networks. Participation in Security '15 and similar conferences is a valuable and important part of the graduate school experience. It provides students with the opportunity to interact with more senior researchers in the field, and exposes students to leading work in the field. The support enables the participation of students who would otherwise be unable to attend the conference. In addition, this grant supports the first USENIX Women in Advanced Computing summit, which will encourage women to become involved in the security field.

USENIX Security '15 will be held in Washington, DC, in August 2015. The conference consists of a three-day technical program, with numerous workshops co-located. The goal of the conference is to bring together researchers, practitioners, system administrators, system programmers, and others interested in the latest advances in the security of computer systems and networks. This cross-disciplinary emphasis makes it well suited as a target for student participation, and this event has always drawn a large proportion of student attendees. This venue provides an excellent vehicle for students to learn about the latest advances in computer security research, and participate in engaging discussions on a wide variety of sub-topics including network and system security, techniques for developing secure systems, technologies for trustworthy computing, hardware security, applied cryptography, etc.

A new feature in USENIX Security 2014 which will be continued for 2015 is the creation of a 'shadow' program committee to help graduate students learn about the publication review process.