I-Corps: (VLab): Enhancing Cyber Security Education Through A Hands-on Virtual Laboratory Approach

网络安全是计算机科学和工程教育的一个重要领域，加强我们的网络基础设施已被公认为国家利益领域。众所周知，美国没有培养出足够多的高素质网络安全专家。缺乏作为科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)教育一部分的实际网络安全经验是此类挑战的来源之一。这项拟议的技术名为“vLab”，旨在应对这一挑战，并建立一个开放的、可动手的网络防御电子学习实验室。这项拟议的技术有望填补在大规模将实践经验融入网络安全课程与增强个性化和可定制教育功能之间的空白，这些功能可以针对高等教育的适应性电子学习环境进行调整。VLab将加强网络安全教育，该教育非常认识到国家日益增长的基础设施安全需求，包括确保通信安全、减少网络威胁、为国土开发弹性系统，以及在线教育计划中的学习技术。提出的动手实验室解决方案可以极大地提高S的网络安全教育质量，吸引更多的学生从事这一领域的工作。目前的vLab不仅是现有课堂和在线教育方法的重要补充部分，而且还提供了一种新的以动手为中心的学习方法，可以极大地提高学习网络安全技术的效率。此外，VLAB有很大的潜力被整合到其他需要动手实验的STEM领域，例如虚拟动手实验室，以支持他们的课程项目。

Cyber security is an important area for computer science and engineering education, and strengthening our cyber infrastructure has been recognized as an area of national interest. It is a well-known fact that the U.S. does not produce enough high-quality cyber security experts. The lack of hands-on cyber security experience as part of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Education is one such source of challenges. The proposed technology, "VLab," is designed to address this challenge and to establish an open and hands-on E-learning laboratory for cyber defense. The proposed technology is expected to fill the gap between incorporating hands-on experience into cyber security curriculum at a large-scale and enhancing personalized and customizable educational features that can be tuned towards an adaptive E-learning environment for higher education.VLab will enhance cyber security education that is very cognizant of the growing national need to keep infrastructures secure, including securing communications, reducing cyber threats, developing resilient systems for the homeland, and for learning technologies in online educational pro- grams. The proposed hands-on laboratory solution can greatly improve the cyber security education?s quality and attract more students to work in this area. The presented VLab will not only be an important complementary component for existing in-class and online education approaches, but also provide a new hands-on centric learning approach that can greatly improve the effectiveness for learning cyber security technologies. Moreover, VLab has great potential to be incorporated into other STEM fields that demands hands-on experiments that can be benefit from such as virtual hands-on laboratory to support their course projects.