Seidenberg continues cybersecurity education with GenCyber workshop

GenCyber WorkshopThe Seidenberg School has long been committed to promoting cybersecurity education through a variety of programs and activities. GenCyber, a workshop hosted by Pace and Seidenberg this month, is one of the many ways in which the Seidenberg School has contributed to inspiring the next generation of cybersecurity professionals. 

The workshop is a prestigious cybersecurity education program funded jointly by the National Science Foundation and the National Security Agency, designed to promote cybersecurity education at the K-12 level. The 2015 Pace GenCyber was designed specifically for high school teachers, and Pace was one of only ten universities nationwide selected to host a teacher workshop in 2015. We welcomed 22 participants, mostly in STEM fields, but not exclusively so, from all over the U.S. including Washington, Florida, Colorado, and Iowa.

The workshop took place at Pace University’s Pleasantville campus, and was spearheaded by Professor and IT WEST Department Chairperson Li-Chiou Chen and Director of Assessment Andreea Cotoranu. The two organized the program from activity design, to instruction, and everything in between. Lectures for the workshop were then delivered by professors of high esteem within the Seidenberg faculty including Li-Chiou Chen, PhD, Charles Tappert, PhD, Meikang Qiu, PhD, and Darren Hayes, DPS with assistance from some of their talented doctoral students. Jigar Jadav, Computer Science teacher at Mamaroneck High-School, and Pace Computer Science PhD student, provided invaluable input on high school instruction and lesson plan development. Moreover, an orchestra of Pace and Seidenberg students and staff ensured that all logistics worked smoothly. According to Andreea Cotoranu, “this was truly a team effort.”

GenCyber Workshop

Throughout the two weeks of the workshop, the teachers dove into a variety of integrated lectures, labs, resource sharing, curriculum development activities, pedagogy, and community building that all focused on different aspects of four main pillars in cybersecurity including cryptography, network security, access control/biometrics and computer forensics. The workshop also introduced Design Thinking pedagogical strategies for problem solving, a student-centered approach to teaching that fosters learning through project development (brainstorming, creating, doing, etc.) in lieu of traditional lecture-style teaching methods.

GenCyber Workshop

Westchester Magazine quoted participant Virginia Nalbandian, a Pleasantville High School mathematics and computer science teacher, as saying, “the workshop has inspired me as a teacher to return to my classroom and inspire my students. And this is what education should ultimately be about.” Sponsors, participants, and organizers all feel hugely satisfied by the workshop’s success.

Everyone involved in GenCyber left the program with a positive, enthusiastic mindset about going forth and integrating cybersecurity in their curricula. The feedback from both participants and sponsors (NSA/NSF), has been excellent, and we are thrilled with the outcome! The organizers and sponsors are already discussing the plans for the return of the workshop next summer, and we look forward to hear how the project will grow.

 

Upcoming Workshop for ‘Design Thinking in Higher Education’ to be Led by Kalevi Ekman

“Professor Kalevi Ekman, director of the world-renowned Design Factory at Aalto University, will conduct a workshop on Design Thinking in Higher Education on Friday, September 6, 2013 at the Seidenberg School, at Pace University, 163 William Street, room 236 from 11:00 – 2:30 PM.

The essence of Design Factory is its unique blend of creative, meeting, and social spaces. Design Factory also hosts research projects for industry and nurtures start-up companies in the adjacent ‘Venture Garage’. Aligning the needs of students and industry, Professor Ekman is a leading expert on combining university and corporate resources to create meaningful experiential learning opportunities for students and faculty.”

Finland’s eye for design in educational settings stands out from the rest of the world. Their education systems are internationally renown for being the best; could their designs for educational settings be a major factor in the quality of learning? It is not absurd to think so. Find out for yourself by attending Ekman’s workshop. Space is limited, so reserve a seat via the Eventbrite page.

Aalto University is one that Seidenberg has been partnered with in recent years and one that, on it’s own, stands at the forefront of innovation in technology, design, and much more. Having this relationship with Aalto is highly beneficial for the Seidenberg community and these seminars are a treat to be celebrated. We welcome Professor Ekman and eagerly await next Friday’s workshop!

Seidenberg to Host BlackGirlsCODE Event

BlackGirlsCODE is coming to Pace to teach girls how to develop video games using Beta! The class encourages girls of 10-17 years to participate in the workshop, which will promote student-driven learning about game development. Seidenberg grad student Peta Clarke has taken the initiative to make good use of our spaces here for this event.

Kimberly Bryant, founder of BlackGirlsCODE, started the organization to eliminate the sense of isolation that hangs over black girls in the programming world–the same sense of isolation Bryant had to deal with, herself, during her studies in the field of technology.

In the organization’s own words, “BlackGirlsCode is devoted to showing the world that black girls can code, and do so much more. By reaching out to the community through workshops and after school programs, BlackGirlsCode introduces computer coding lessons to young girls from underrepresented communities in programming languages such as Scratch or Ruby on Rails. BlackGirlsCode has set out to prove to the world that girls of every color have the skills to become the programmers of tomorrow. By promoting classes and programs we hope to grow the number of women of color working in technology and give underprivileged girls a chance to become the masters of their technological worlds,”  (source).

The event will take place this Saturday, August 17, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. Click here to register. Space is limited, so register now!

We would like to see more of this! [click through to Instagram]
Skip to toolbar