EAGER: SaTC AI-Cybersecurity: Opening Doors for Cybersecurity & AI: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Engaging Middle School Students

随着整个社会对技术的依赖日益增加，培养更多了解和参与网络安全和人工智能（AI）主题的人口至关重要。开放门户项目的目的是让网络安全和人工智能领域的行业专业人士与教育研究人员、人工智能和网络安全研究人员以及K-12教师进行对话。这些对话将作为识别学科知识的一种手段，包括网络安全和人工智能交叉领域的需求和利益。该小组将努力寻找让中学生和他们的老师参与学习人工智能、网络安全以及它们之间的交集的方法。通过包括这一系列的声音，该项目将产生关于行业和学术期望之间的异同的知识。讨论还将推动一项调查的发展，该调查可用于确定学生对人工智能和网络安全的了解程度，以及一个概念验证教学模块，以解决已确定的知识差距之一。项目团队还将记录建立这个跨学科实践社区的过程，以塑造学生教育经历的方式专注于单一问题。该项目将确定，努力破译中学生所知道的和他们可能知道的东西，是否会让学生在成年后以公民、用户、程序员或其他角色的身份更多地参与网络安全和人工智能。该项目的成果将促进对人工智能和网络安全领域研究人员和专业人员专业知识性质的理解，并支持和研究他们之间的交流，同时探索将这些专业知识转化为课程的方法，以便向中学教师和学生广泛传播。项目团队将使用定性和定量方法相结合的方法来实现以下成果：(1)开发一个跨学科的智库，并记录创建该智库的过程，以便向其他有兴趣建立类似伙伴关系的人提供信息；(2)开发调查工具，旨在揭示中年级学生对人工智能、网络安全的理解，以及这两个领域的交集对他们生活的影响，以及这个跨学科领域可能提供的职业；(3)调查结果中可能存在的差距，以及中年级学生对这些方面的理解；(4)一个概念验证学习模块，可以由任何中学教师在任何地方实施。该项目由安全与可信网络空间（SaTC）计划的一项特别倡议支持，旨在促进网络安全、人工智能和教育领域之间前所未有的合作。SaTC项目与《联邦网络安全研究与发展战略计划》和《国家隐私研究战略》保持一致，旨在保护和维护网络系统日益增长的社会和经济效益，同时确保安全和隐私。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

As reliance on technology increases across society, it is critical to develop a population that is more knowledgeable about and engaged in the topics of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI). The aim of the Opening Doors project is to engage industry professionals in the fields of cybersecurity and AI in conversations with educational researchers, AI and cybersecurity researchers, and K-12 teachers. These conversations will serve as a means to identify disciplinary knowledge, including needs and benefits, at the intersection of cybersecurity and AI. The group will work to identify ways to engage middle school students and their teachers in learning about AI, cybersecurity, and the intersections between them. By including this array of voices, the project will generate knowledge about the differences and similarities between industry and academic expectations. The discussion will also drive the development of a survey that can be used to determine what students know about AI and cybersecurity as well as a proof-of-concept instructional module that addresses one of the identified gaps in knowledge. The project team will also document the process for building this interdisciplinary community of practice to focus on a single issue in ways that shape students’ educational experiences. The project will determine whether investing effort into deciphering what middle school students do know, and what they can know, will lead to students who are more engaged in cybersecurity and AI as citizens, users, programmers, or in other roles as they mature into adulthood.The outcomes of this project will advance understanding of the nature of expertise of researchers and professionals in AI and cybersecurity, as well as supporting and studying communication between them, while exploring ways to translate that expertise into curricula for widespread dissemination to middle school teachers and students. The project team will use a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches to accomplish the following outcomes: (1) the development of an interdisciplinary think tank along with a documented process for creating it that can inform others interested in building similar partnerships; (2) the development of survey instruments designed to uncover what middle grades students understand about AI, cybersecurity, and the intersection of these two areas as they affect their lives, as well as possible careers available in this interdisciplinary space; (3) findings from the survey on possible gaps as well as what middle grades students understand about these areas; and (4) one proof-of-concept learning module that can be implemented by any middle school teacher anywhere. This project is supported by a special initiative of the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) program to foster new, previously unexplored, collaborations between the fields of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and education. The SaTC program aligns with the Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Strategic Plan and the National Privacy Research Strategy to protect and preserve the growing social and economic benefits of cyber systems while ensuring security and privacy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.