Improving the Pipeline: After-School Model for Preparing Cyber Defense and Information Assurance Professionals

改善渠道：培养网络防御和信息保障专业人员的课后模式

• 批准号: 1623525
• 负责人: Sandra Gorka
• 金额: $ 43.84万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania College of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-15 至 2020-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1623525&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Improving; Pipeline; After; Model; Preparing

The project addresses a need to educate more information assurance/cyber defense (IA/CD) professionals to counteract the growing risk of cyber-attacks. The project does so by developing and implementing an IA/CD after-school program for high school students and assessing its effectiveness as a launchpad for IA/CD careers. The program goals are to raise awareness of high school students about IA/CD careers; generate their interest in those careers; and solidify and enhance the preparation of participating students to pursue the education required to succeed in one of those careers. Once fully implemented, the program will annually enroll up to 50 students from five local rural high schools. Because of high demand for IA/CD specialists, those who continue on to complete the degree program will be able to secure well-paying jobs, which will have economic impact not only on them, but also on their families and communities. The program will also train teachers in participating schools to become more knowledgeable and aware of information security issues. The teachers will pass this knowledge on to their students and families, thereby improving information security among the general public.The project will advance both knowledge and education in the field of cybersecurity by examining the conditions that impact high school students' decisions to pursue IA/CD careers and their success in an academic program that leads to these careers. The evaluation will also examine the project's ability to attract students underrepresented in the profession-female, first-generation, and low-income students. The rigorous evaluation plan will gauge the effectiveness of specific components, particularly the modular after-school academic program, the hands-on cyber competitions, Penn College student mentoring and coaching provided by professionals in the field. By documenting all project elements, publishing and presenting program results and lessons learned, and making program information available on the project website and via seminars and webinars, the Project Team will make this model available to institutions interested in replicating or adapting it. The specific objectives of the project are to: (1) develop an after-school college credit-bearing program in IA/CD for high school students; (2) provide the after-school program to 8-10 students in Year 1, 24-30 students in Year 2, and 40-50 students in Year 3; and (3) research the impact of the proposed model on students' educational and career choices/paths.

该项目解决了教育更多信息保证/网络防御（IA/CD）专业人员的需求，以应对日益增长的网络攻击风险。该项目通过为高中生开发和实施IA/CD课后计划并评估其作为IA/CD职业生涯启动平台的有效性来实现这一目标。该计划的目标是提高高中学生对IA/CD职业的认识;产生他们对这些职业的兴趣;并巩固和加强参与学生的准备，以追求在这些职业之一取得成功所需的教育。一旦全面实施，该计划每年将从当地五所农村高中招收多达50名学生。由于对IA/CD专家的高需求，那些继续完成学位课程的人将能够获得高薪工作，这不仅对他们，而且对他们的家庭和社区都有经济影响。 该计划还将培训参与学校的教师，使他们对信息安全问题有更多的了解和认识。教师将把这些知识传授给学生和家庭，从而提高公众的信息安全水平。该项目将通过研究影响高中生从事IA/CD职业的决定以及他们在导致这些职业的学术课程中的成功的条件，促进网络安全领域的知识和教育。评估还将审查该项目吸引在该专业中代表性不足的学生-女性、第一代和低收入家庭学生-的能力。严格的评估计划将衡量特定部分的有效性，特别是模块化课后学术课程、动手网络竞赛、宾夕法尼亚大学学生指导和该领域专业人士提供的辅导。通过记录所有项目要素、公布和展示项目成果和经验教训、在项目网站上以及通过研讨会和网络研讨会提供项目信息，项目小组将向有兴趣复制或调整该模式的机构提供该模式。该项目的具体目标是：（1）为高中生开发一个IA/CD课后大学学分课程;（2）为一年级8-10名学生，二年级24-30名学生和三年级40-50名学生提供课后计划;（3）研究拟议模式对学生教育和职业选择/路径的影响。