Collaborative Project: Building Cybersecurity Capacity by Means of a National High School Digital Forensics Challenge

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This is a collaborative project involving the Polytechnic University of New York (NSF Award No. 1129459) and CUNY New York City College of Technology (NSF Award No. 1128869).This SFS Capacity Building project is engaging high school students in cybersecurity-related activities and inspiring them to pursue higher studies in this important area. The project is creating a nationwide high school forensics challenge, which attracts thousands of students to get first-hand experience learning and working on security-related issues. In order to help the student participants, the project is training a cadre of high school teachers to mentor and coach teams that take part in the challenge and thereby to facilitate the integration of cybersecurity topics into high school curricula. The project is also creating a portal of Web resources for high school students, to facilitate their engagement in self-learning activities in the area of cybersecurity. The evaluation component of the project aims to answer the more difficult questions related to impact. Namely, does the creation of a contest lead to an increased number of students pursuing higher education in STEM disciplines? Does it stimulate creative thinking? Does it broaden participation? Does participation in a cybersecurity competition enhance students' interest in cybersecurity, computer science, math, and science? Do competition participants enroll in computer science programs at college in higher proportion than their peers?The project includes collaboration with a minority serving institution in order to increase the participation of women and minorities. The project is specifically recruiting 10 women and minority teachers to attend the summer boot camp and is inviting 10 groups of women and minority teachers and their students to attend the Cyber Security Awareness Week (CSAW) award ceremony. These two activities contribute to the formation of a network of personal, educational, and professional ties; provide young students with role models; and lead to fruitful mentoring relationships and research.