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.

该项目解决了需要教育更多信息保证/网络防御（IA/CD）专业人员以抵消日益增长的网络攻击风险的需求。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职业的发射台的有效性来实现。计划的目标是提高对高中生IA/CD职业的认识；对这些职业产生兴趣；并巩固和增强参与学生的准备，以追求在其中一项职业中取得成功所需的教育。一旦完全实施，该计划将每年从五个当地农村高中的50名学生注册。由于对IA/CD专家的需求量很高，那些继续完成学位课程的人将能够确保薪水良好的工作，这不仅会对他们，而且对他们的家庭和社区产生影响。 该计划还将培训参与学校的教师，以变得更加知识渊博，并意识到信息安全问题。教师将把这些知识传递给他们的学生和家庭，从而提高了公众的信息安全性。该项目将通过检查影响高中生从事IA/CD职业的决定的条件，并在网络安全领域提高知识和教育，并在从事IA/CD职业方面的成功及其在学术课程中取得成功，从而导致这些职业。该评估还将研究该项目吸引专业人士，第一代和低收入学生中代表性不足的学生的能力。严格的评估计划将衡量特定组成部分的有效性，尤其是模块化的课后学术计划，动手网络比赛，宾夕法尼亚大学学生指导和由该领域的专业人员提供的指导。通过记录所有项目元素，发布和介绍课程结果和经验教训，并在项目网站上以及通过研讨会和网络研讨会上提供计划信息，项目团队将使该模型可用于有兴趣复制或调整其的机构。该项目的具体目标是：（1）在IA/CD中为高中生开发课后学院信用计划； （2）为1年级的8-10名学生提供课后课程，在第2年的24-30名学生和3年级的40-50名学生； （3）研究拟议模型对学生教育和职业选择/道路的影响。