News Item
Press Release: Pace Hosts Cybersecurity Camp for High School Students
Training to promote STEM careers with emphasis on women and minorities
Elizabeth McDowell, a 10th grader from Hendrick Hudson High School, said she was initially uncertain about attending last week’s Camp CryptoBot at Pace University, but by the time she left she was so excited about what she had learned that she planned to sign up for an engineering course at her high school in the fall.
Pauline Mosley, DPS, Principal Investigator and Camp Director for Camp CryptoBot, said McDowell’s story illustrates exactly what she had in mind when she wrote the grant to obtain funding for the camp from CyberGen, an outreach program funded by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
This is the second year that Pace University’s Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems has held the week-long training camp teaching the basics of cybersecurity to high school students. This year, 33 students from around the tri-state area participated in the program from July 30 - August 3.
“We were thrilled to again be able to offer this free, one-week interactive and mission-driven camp to high school students in the New York Metropolitan area,” said Mosley, Professor of Information Technology at Pace. “We want to engage and excite students and we hope they will come away from this experience wanting to learn more. Not only is our goal to attract young people to careers in cybersecurity, but we hope to increase the numbers of women and minorities who pursue careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields.”
Last week, students from 28 high schools in five states learned cybersecurity concepts at the Seidenberg School. As part of a robot building and intelligence gathering exercise, they built cyber-bots that were launched in the pool at Pace’s Goldstein Health and Fitness Center as part of a challenge called SeaPerch, a phrased coined by the U.S. Navy. Students programmed and operated underwater Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) to carry out a simulated scenario. They conducted similar exercises with drones and also were addressed by a Navy Outreach Officer during the camp.
The United States Navy is a major partner in this grant and provides U.S. Navy personnel including a Chief and Petty Officers to assist in the engineering and soldering aspects of the water robots. CISCO, a sponsor of the grant, provides gifts for the campers as well as a keynote cybersecurity expert at the closing ceremony. Pace, a CISCO Networking Academy Center, provides campers with the opportunity to continue their learning of cybersecurity by completing an online CISCO course and earning a certificate of completion at the end.
Professor Mosely thanked the other faculty and team members who made the camp possible: Professor of Information Technology Li-Chiou Chen, Ph.D., Camp Instructor Matt Ganis, Ph.D., John Sarlo, Dawn Tucker, Jill Olimpieri and Sarah Russel, as well as Pace student group leaders Vincent Gomez, Cheyenne Mascaro, Muhammad Hamza Wajid and Frank Coloccia, Jr.
Earlier in July, Pace hosted a similar camp for 24 high school teachers from 11 states who learned how to include cybersecurity in classroom curriculum.
About Pace University: Since 1906, Pace has educated thinking professionals by providing high quality education for the professions on a firm base of liberal learning amid the advantages of the New York metropolitan area. A private university, Pace has campuses in Lower Manhattan and Westchester County, N.Y., enrolling nearly 13,000 students in bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs in its Lubin School of Business, Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, College of Health Professions, School of Education, Elisabeth Haub School of Law, and Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems. Pace has been a designated National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education (CAEIAE) by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security since 2004. www.pace.edu
About The Seidenberg School: The Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems at Pace University prepares men and women for professional work, research, and lifelong participation in a new and dynamic information age. Located in the financial capital of the world, the Seidenberg School offers a wide variety of courses and exposure to internships and work with leading corporations, banks, federal agencies, and global entities. Degrees and certificates are conveniently available on Pace’s campuses in New York City and Westchester County as well as online and in special programs. Visit http://www.pace.edu/seidenberg/.
