Midwest City, Okla. – Would your student or child enjoy playing on a computer all day without getting the third degree? How about learning how to hack into a computer or discover secret coding and or messages? Or have you ever disassembled a computer? (This does not include the kicking or throwing of said computer due to frustration either.) This is just a glimpse of the hands-on activities the students and teachers participated in during the GenCyber camp at Rose State College.
For two weeks nearly 200 students K-12 and teachers from across the region have learned under the guidance of Rose State’s Ken Dewey, Director/Professor of Cybersecurity. Steganography seemed to be a camp favorite for both students and teachers. It’s the practice of concealing a file, message, image or video within another file. Students had to find the hidden image and pull it out, just like the cyber units do in the federal government to find clues.
The camp’s first year has proved to be a great experience. Participants were asked if the camp changed their mind about which career path they wanted to follow and one teacher claimed they would be looking at plans of a career in cybersecurity after teacher retirement. Another mentioned they would be encouraging their students to look into cybersecurity for a future.
Rose State College received a grant from the National Security Agency (NSA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to offer the GenCyber program. Summer camps across the nation are set up to provide cybersecurity principles and ethical teaching techniques with the goal of: increasing interest in cybersecurity careers, providing students with the knowledge for correct and safe on-line behavior and to improve teaching methods for delivering cybersecurity content to K-12 students. Rose State is only one of two higher education facilities in the state to offer the free cyber experience. The need for cybersecurity experts in both the private and public sectors will only continue to grow and GenCyber program experts predict the risk of cyber-attacks and intrusion will keep increasing.
Rose State College is designated as a Center for Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education by the NSA and Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Rose State offers an Associate in Applied Science degree with two options, networking and cybersecurity and include transfer agreements for those who would like to pursue a bachelor’s degree and beyond. Professor Dewey currently holds the position of Principle Investigator for an NSF grant awarded to Rose State College in Cyber Security which funds student scholarships in the amount of $600,000 over 5 years to those students that qualify.
For more information or questions regarding Cyber Security scholarships and careers you can contact Ken Dewey at kdewey@rose.edu or (405) 733-7977.
Photo Cutline: GenCyber camp participants and staff member disassembling a computer as one of the camp sessions.