Pace Hosts Cybersecurity Camp for High School Teachers and Students

From Pace University:

PLEASANTVILLE, NY (July 28, 2016) - Nathan VanDyke, a high school math and computer science teacher from Minnesota, found himself in Westchester this past week in a class full of his peers learning about Raspberry Pi, a pocket-size computer on which one can run various cybersecurity software.

“This is really a whole new world for us,’’ said VanDyke, who is working to with the Minnetonka Public Schools in a western suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul, to create a new computer science department. “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.

A second GenCyber program from July 25-29 was held for 30 high school students from across the tri-state area. Students learned cybersecurity concepts in addition to building cyber-spybots that were launched on the school’s pond as part of a robot building and intelligence gathering exercise. The students, under the guidance of Chief Navy Career Counselor Freddie McAbee, assistant Navy City Outreach officer for the Northeast Region, operated an underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) used in the SeaPerch Challenge.

Prof. Pauline Mosley, principal investigator on the NSA grant that funds the Student Camp, said Camp CyberBot is an innovative educational experience that integrates water-robotics and cybersecurity to engage and instruct high school students, particularly girls, in learning STEM. “This is the first time the student camp was held at Pace,” Prof. Mosley said. “The camp was a success in large part due to the expertise of camp program manager Nancy Treuer, SeaPerch instructors Dawn Tucker and John Sarlo, and the support of so many other faculty and staff members at Pace.

Rachel Paul, a student at Kallam High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia, traveled to New York to participate in the camp and is staying with her grandparents. “I have wanted to pursue a career in cybersecurity,” said Paul. “I have learned so much at this camp about cybersecurity from the professors through working with SeaPerch with Chief McAbee and others from the Navy. Chief McAbee showed us how the Navy personnel train online.”

Paul’s sister’s email was once hacked by someone in Saudi Arabia. “I helped her reset her password and taught her how to be more careful online to prevent future hackers from getting her email address,” said Paul. “I really want to help people and maybe work for the NSA one day.” Paul believes that online safety and security should be part of school curriculum in K-12 classrooms nationwide.

Last year, President Obama identified cybersecurity as one of the most serious economic and national security challenges facing our nation and created a new agency, the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center to help coordinate government and the private sector to combat these threats.

The need for experts to track and counter cyber threats is critical with attacks ranging from hackers stealing personal information to terrorists using propaganda to recruit lone wolf attackers like Orlando shooter Omar Mateen and Boston Marathon bombers Tsarnaev brothers.

Prof. Li-Chou Chen, who taught at both programs, said that Raspberry Pi, a tiny computer that sells for about $30-$50 a piece, is making it easier to teach computing concepts, such as encryption and programming in the classroom. The clear plastic box which is about the size of cell phone was given to students to take home.

Prof. Li-Chiou Chen, the principal investigator of the project as well as Pace’s CyberCorps program, pointed out that “ 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.

Photo 1: From left to right - Jose Latorre (student at Rye Neck High School), Dr. Li-Chiou Chen, Emily “Lee” Marias (student at Tuckahoe High School), Dr. Pauline Mosley.

Photos courtesy of Pace University.