Longitudinal Injection of Interdisciplinary Cybersecurity Awareness into Engineering Curricula

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Upcoming smart technologies such as Smart Cities, Internet of Things, and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles digitize current technologies and require cybersecurity-aware multi-disciplinary engineering experts to ensure the security of such devices. As devices become smart and interconnected to provide improved services, they also become greater targets of cyber-attacks. Ensuring proper operation of smart technologies requires well-trained, proactive engineers, who are knowledgeable on core engineering principles, cybersecurity risks associated with their designs, and risks from other interconnected disciplines. The goal of this collaborative project is to develop and adopt interdisciplinary cybersecurity curriculum by fostering a holistic approach through collaboration across engineering disciplines. By bringing scholars from different engineering disciplines, this project explores unique ways to engage students in interdisciplinary cybersecurity-aware engineering education. The knowledge units developed at the University of Nevada, Reno will be disseminated to engineering colleges nationwide to sustain long-term research and education partnerships in secure engineering.Cybersecurity research and its applications are highly relevant in all areas of engineering, including computer, electrical, mechanical, civil and biomedical disciplines. Researchers will develop knowledge units to introduce and reinforce the importance of cybersecurity to undergraduate students across several engineering disciplines with a focus on Smart Cities, Internet of Things, and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. These three broad technological areas require expertise in multiple engineering fields and go from macro-level view to micro-level view where each of the sectors encompass the next one. Cybersecurity awareness will be injected organically in a boot camp for incoming engineering freshman, a freshman experience course on Introduction to Engineering, and discipline-specific technical engineering courses, typically during junior and senior years. The project will bring together engineering faculty to develop knowledge units that can be seamlessly adopted across various engineering disciplines. Instruction will be augmented with hands-on activities to create an interactive cybersecurity education environment and stimulate learning. A "Connected Cities" playing arena will be developed, comprising various cyber physical systems that are integrated for hands-on cybersecurity engagement. Through interdisciplinary educational modules and hands-on activities developed via this project, students will obtain a solid grasp on the interplay between different engineering disciplines and obtain critical knowledge and skills needed to engineer smart technologies that are resilient to cyber-attacks.