Vehicle Cyber Engineering Program offers significant scholarship support for new students

December 09, 2024

U.S. Sen. Peters and National Cyber Director Harry Coker Jr. look at a vehicle during a visit to UDM's College of Engineering & Science.University of Detroit Mercy’s Vehicle Cyber Engineering (VCE) Program announces the availability of scholarships of up to $12,500 for students who enroll in the program for winter 2025.  

Information sessions for the VCE program and other College of Engineering & Science graduate programs take place on the following dates and times. Seats are limited and prospective students are encouraged to register as soon as possible.

  • Wednesday, Dec. 11 at 12 p.m.
  • Wednesday, Dec. 18 at 9:30 a.m. or 12:00 p.m.

Register for these sessions online today by clicking the calendar.

In 2020, the College of Engineering & Science received a $1.12-million award from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) that supported the establishment of the Metro Detroit Regional Virtual Vehicle Cybersecurity Institute. This ground-breaking Institute formed through partnerships between academia, the vehicle manufacturing industry, and the DoD to address the shortfall of trained vehicle cybersecurity engineers and computer scientists to meet the needs of the military ground vehicle and transportation industries. In early 2024, the Institute received an additional $497,080 award from the DoD to expand its work and impact. 

"The success of our Vehicle Cyber Engineering program is built upon the strength of our industry and government relationships and high-quality curriculum focused on applied career development in engineering,” Dean of UDM’s College of Engineering & Science Katherine Snyder said. “We are also leveraging the strength of UDM’s NSA Center for Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense which addresses cyber workforce needs in the Information Technology and Information Systems domains. With our Vehicle Cyber and Cyber Crime programs, UDM will be a leader in meeting the variety of cybersecurity workforce needs in the region and the nation.” 

Students gather on the steps outside of the Engineering Building.U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, toured the Vehicle Cyber Engineering program facility in the spring of 2024 and was briefed by leadership on the Metro Detroit Regional Vehicle Cyber Security Institute’s objectives.

“Michigan is a leader in the development of emerging autonomous vehicle technologies, and Detroit Mercy is helping to meet the growing demand for a skilled cybersecurity workforce across our automotive and defense sectors,” he noted during his visit. “This investment will allow Detroit Mercy, along with its regional consortium members, to continue building a talent pipeline that will support our state’s workforce needs while strengthening our national defense.”

Detroit Mercy offers graduate programs relevant to workforce needs in the following areas:

  • vehicle cybersecurity
  • cybersecurity management
  • cybercrime
  • electrical engineering
  • software engineering
  • systems engineering
  • data science
  • data analytics
  • electric vehicle
  • autonomous vehicle
  • technical management
  • product development

The goal is to provide students a variety of undergraduate, graduate and certificate options in these fields through UDM’s College of Engineering & Science and College of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences (CHASS).

The success of UDM’s Master of Science in Product Development (MPD) and graduate certificate in Systems Engineering continue to raise the national profile of all engineering programs. At the Second Annual World Championships of System Architecture and Modeling conducted during the Integrate24 Symposium held in Cleveland, Ohio, Jeremy Ross, a graduate of the MPD program and engineer at Ford Motor Co. in Detroit, won in the individual competition. This prestigious digital engineering symposium, hosted by Zuken Vitech, brings together leading minds in the field each year to tackle complex engineering challenges in real time.

Additionally, College of Engineering & Science programs have achieved industry honors. For example, the International Council on System Engineering (INCOSE) recognizes UDM’s System’s Engineering Certificate as an equivalent to the INCOSE knowledge exam. This means that UDM students seeking INCOSE certification are able to bypass the knowledge exam requirement.

UDM’s commitment to helping veterans and military personnel achieve success has also been recognized both locally and nationally, earning high marks from Military Friendly Schools and the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency. The University has also been designated a Center of Academic Excellence by the Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency. 

Classes for the VCE and other graduate programs are available in several modalities, including online (asynchronous and synchronous), in person and via hybrid formats.

For more about Detroit Mercy’s College of Engineering & Science graduate degrees in Engineering, please visit https://eng-sci.udmercy.edu/academics/engineering/graduate.php