gencyber – Seidenberg School News

GenCyber cybersecurity workshop for high school teachers enters fourth year at Pace University’s Seidenberg School

For the fourth year, Pace University’s Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems hosts a GenCyber cybersecurity workshop for high school teachers. The workshop, which is supported by a grant from the National Security Agency (NSA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), aims to introduce methods for educators to bring cybersecurity into the classroom through a seven-day program on Pace University’s Pleasantville campus.

Dr. Li-Chiou Chen introduces the fundamentals of Linux and Raspberry Pi.

Over the course of the workshop, the 24 high school teachers in residence will undergo rigorous training in various cybersecurity topics and learn the tools to impart that knowledge to high school students when they return to the classroom. The workshop kicked off on Thursday, July 12, 2018, and will run until Friday, July 20.

On day one, the workshop kicked off into high gear with unplugged activities running in the morning before it was joined by a few guests for lunch. Dean of the Seidenberg School, Jonathan Hill, as well as the new Pace Provost, Vanya Quinones, stopped by to greet the participants.

Assistant Dean Andreea Cotoranu introducing the next training exercise to participants.

Andreea Cotoranu, the Assistant Dean of Academic Innovation, and the Pace GenCyber Program Director, welcomed the group and thanked her “partner in crime,” Dr. Li-Chiou Chen, Chair of the Information Technology Department, and Pace GenCyber lead instructor, for her contributions to designing and teaching the workshop. “I am very excited you are all here,” said Dr. Chen.

Pace Provost Vanya Quiñones and Seidenberg Dean Jonathan Hill welcomed participants on Day 1.

Dean Hill gave participants an overview of their host: “Welcome to Pace University and the Seidenberg School,” he said. “The Seidenberg School is the third oldest school of computer science in the country. We are celebrating our 35^th anniversary this year and there are several things that are . . . part of our ethos that we are incredibly proud of, and having the opportunity to host you here is a great reflection of that.

“We believe in a strong pipeline from K-12 all the way through to the highest levels at University so we have such deep respect for all the things you do in your classrooms.

“This is a competitive program; we get a lot of applications, and the fact that you are here speaks volumes . . . the material you are going to get is incredibly compelling.” He added: “Pace is a university where you not only get a great technical education, but you get a great liberal education and a great scientific education.”

Dr. Hill then introduced the new Provost of Pace University, Vanya Quinones, who was only on her sixth day so far at Pace! Provost Quinones welcomed the attendees, saying that she was glad to meet them so early on in her tenure at Pace. “It shows how Pace is committed to the future of our country and future generations understanding the importance of cybersecurity, computing, and technology,” she said. “We are proud that you are here, and we are excited that you are able to come and meet Pace and see the wonderful things that we do here.”

Dr. Li-Chiou Chen demonstrating a cryptography wheel.

The Seidenberg School is delighted to run the GenCyber workshop for high school teachers as it fully aligns with our cybersecurity initiative, which emphasizes the importance of cybersecurity education and awareness today and going forward. The School has been having a powerful impact in higher education and industry communities for years, but the chance to extend our impact into high school classrooms is an opportunity we are extremely proud of and enthusiastic about.

“We are excited to have you here,” said Assistant Dean Andreea Cotoranu. “This year, with this cohort, we are reaching [a total of] 90 high school teachers across the country that have been participating in Pace GenCyber. By teaching you, the teachers, we have an opportunity to impact thousands of students across the country and we are very proud of that.”

Participants hard at work on a cryptography exercise.

Read about previous GenCyber workshops!

Pace GenCyber brings cybersecurity to high school classrooms for the third year

Pace University’s GenCyber teacher workshop has completed its third year! The NSA and NSF-funded program, organized and run by the Seidenberg School, took place from July 13-21 and involved a wonderful cohort of high school teachers from across the nation attending lectures, discussions, lab exercises and activities pertaining to topics in cybersecurity.

Twenty-three high school teachers attended the Pace University Pleasantville campus to learn fundamental cybersecurity concepts and to study new resources and methods to facilitate integration of cybersecurity material into their class curricula or after-school activities.

Workshop participants were introduced to cybersecurity first principles, cryptography, web security, access control, biometrics, and cybersecurity analytics. The curriculum, designed and delivered by Seidenberg faculty and staff, was based on a combination of interpersonal, intrapersonal and kinesthetic learning activities that aimed to ensure participants got the most from their time at Pace University.

The GenCyber program is part of Seidenberg’s outreach efforts to infuse STEM and cybersecurity education into high school classrooms. As a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education, Pace strives to prepare the next generation of cybersecurity professionals for the challenges of the future. Through programs like GenCyber, Pace University supports teachers across the country in teaching the fundamentals to their students.

GenCyber participant Ron Conwell, who teaches Career and Technical Education at Clarkson Community School is Clarkston, MI, said: “Of the professional development experiences I have been to, this rises to the top just based on the amount of student engagement experiences that we were able to participate and engage in. We got to actually use [Raspberry] Pis, actually do the labs, and engage in the experiences ourselves rather than have to focus on just taking notes while other people talked.”

Ed McGinnis, who teaches Computer Science at St. George’s School in Newport, RI, agreed. “There were lots of resources and lots of info received. We were given links and tangible things to take home to use immediately in the classroom.”

Andreea Cotoranu, Assistant Dean of Academic Innovation and program director said that “through Pace GenCyber we aim to educate high school teachers about cybersecurity. Curricula taught in high schools is particularly well suited for integration of cybersecurity, since cybersecurity problems can often be reduced to the fundamentals of mathematics and computer science.

“Through the Pace GenCyber curriculum, we not only teach cybersecurity, but we also showcase the connections between cybersecurity topics and the participants’ teaching disciplines, as well as provide the tools needed to infuse the material into the classroom. Pace GenCyber is more than just a summer workshop, it is a community of faculty, students, teachers, alumni, government and corporate leaders who contribute to shaping the future of cybersecurity.”

GenCyber is made possible through funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Security Agency. The 2017 Pace University GenCyber program was designed and administered by Andreea Cotoranu (Program Director) and Dr. Li-Chiou Chen (Lead Instructor), with teaching support from Seidenberg School faculty Dr. Charles Tappert, Dr. Yegin Genc, and computer science high school teacher Jigar Jadav (Mamaroneck High School). Credit is also due to Barbara Woodworth and Jill Olimpieri, as well as Seidenberg students Tianyu Wang, Elizabeth Molloy, Kaitlyn Bestenheider, Steven Porras and Tristan Still.

Seidenberg hosts cybersecurity programs for high school teachers and students

Recently, the Seidenberg School welcomed teachers and high school students from 10 states for free training as part of an NSA grant to promote K-12 cybersecurity education.

The programs invited participants to visit Pace University’s Pleasantville campus for a week of cybersecurity education training. 25 high school teachers attended the first session, and 30 high school students the second. Since there’s plenty to cover, this post is all about the GenCyber teachers’ workshop and you’ll just have to wait for the next post to hear about Camp Cyberbot!

“The GenCyber summer programs aim to train the next generation of cybersecurity professionals by preparing our educators and by getting young students interested in the cybersecurity area, which is one of strengths of the Seidenberg School at Pace University,” said Professor Li-Chiou Chen, the principal investigator of the project.

One of the attendees, Nathan VanDyke, a high school math and computer science teacher from Minnesota, said: “This is really a whole new world for us. Cybersecurity will be a major area of study and we need to prepare our students for this field.’’

VanDyke was one of 25 high school teachers from 10 states who were at Pace University from July 14-22 to attend a program at the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems. The school is the only one in the tri-state area (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut) to host the teachers’ cybercamp as a part of the national GenCyber program funded by the National Security Agency to promote cybersecurity education at the K-to-12 level.

Teachers were introduced to Raspberry Pi, a tiny, inexpensive computer that makes it easier to teach computing concepts, such as encryption and programming in the classroom.

After the GenCyber workshop’s conclusion, participants were awarded with certificates of completion.

Next post, we’re talking about the second session, Camp Cyberbot, which saw high school students building underwater SeaPerch robots and testing them in the PLV campus pond!

Seidenberg continues cybersecurity education with GenCyber workshop

The 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.”

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.

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.