Asee peer logo

Cybersecurity, Digital Forensics, and Mobile Computing: Building the Pipeline of Next-generation University Graduates through Focused High School Summer Camps

Download Paper |

Conference

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual On line

Publication Date

June 22, 2020

Start Date

June 22, 2020

End Date

June 26, 2021

Conference Session

Computers in Education Division Technical Session 10: STEM Outreach

Tagged Division

Computers in Education

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

12

DOI

10.18260/1-2--34368

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/34368

Download Count

428

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Mahmoud K. Quweider University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

visit author page

M K Quweider is a Professor of Computer & Information Sciences at the U. of Texas at UTRGV. He received his Ph.D. in Engineering Science (Multimedia and Imaging Specialty) and B.S. In Electrical Engineering, M.S. in Applied Mathematics, M.S. in Engineering Science, and M.S. in Biomedical Engineering all from the University of Toledo, Ohio. He also holds a Bachelor of English and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Texas at Brownsville. After graduation, he was employed at several corporations including Pixera, a digital multimedia processing company in Cupertino, CA, 3COM, a networking and communication company in Schaumberg, IL, and Mercantec, an E-Commerce company in Naperville, IL. He has more than 40 publications in the field, and has served as a reviewer/moderator for several scientific and educational journals and conferences. He joined UTB in the Spring of 2000. His areas of interest include Imaging, Visualization and Animation, Networking and Cyber Security, Web Design, Computer Graphics, and Linguistics.

visit author page

biography

Fitratullah Khan University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

visit author page

Professor Fitratullah Khan has been teaching computer science courses since 1992. His areas of expertise are computer architecture, networking, database systems, computing platforms and languages. As the director of Infrastructure, Telecommunications, and Networking (ITNet), and later as a Chief Technology Officer, at UT Brownsville, he implemented state of the art networking using campus wide fiber ring with redundant links. He established diskless computer labs to provide uniform computing platform across campus, and modernized classrooms to make them congenial to online learning. He was the PI on NSF funded BCEIL (Beowulf-based Curriculum Enrichment Integrated Laboratory) and Co-PI on NSF funded MCALL (Multimedia based Computer Assisted Learning Lab).

visit author page

biography

Liyu Zhang University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

visit author page

Liyu Zhang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science Department of Computer Science at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. He received his Ph. D. in Computer Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo in September 2007. Before that he received his M. S. (2000) and B. S. (1997) from Fudan University, Shanghai , China, both in Computer Science. His research interests are in theoretical computer science and its applications, with emphasis on computational complexity, complexity-based cryptography, and design and analysis of algorithms. Dr. Zhang’s research has been sponsored by National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Education.

visit author page

biography

Yessica Rodriguez University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley

visit author page

Yessica Rodriguez is a Computer Science master's student at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). She received her B.S. in Computer Science from UTRGV. During her time as a student, she worked as a Teacher's Assistant (TA) and tutor for the Department of Computer Science. Her areas of interest include Machine Learning, Data Mining, and Information Retrieval.

visit author page

biography

Yessenia Rodriguez University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley

visit author page

Yessenia Rodriguez is a graduate student at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), pursuing a Master's in Computer Science. She received her Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from UTRGV. As she pursues her degrees, she works with the Department of Computer Science as a teaching assistant and tutor. Her research interest is in the area of machine learning with an emphasis on design and analysis of machine learning algorithms and their limitations.

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

Abstract To create the next generation of skilled university graduates that would help in filling the national need for cybersecurity, digital forensics, and mobile computing professionals, a team of minority/under-represented graduate students, the University Upward Bound Program (a federally funded program and part of the U.S. Department of Education; one of 967 programs nationwide) staff, and faculty from the Computer Science (CS) department got together and proposed a focused 10-week long funded summer camp for two local high schools with the following objectives: • Provide graduate students to instruct in the area mobile application development, forensics and cyber Security • Provide CS one-on-one mentors for students while conducting their work-based learning experience in Computer Science • Assign hands-on interdisciplinary projects that emphasize the importance of STEM fields when using and developing software applications. • Promote and develop soft skills among participants including leadership, communications skills, and teamwork. The proposal was funded, and the summer camps were conducted in the summer of 2019 with participation of more than 40 students from two local high schools. The paper will present our efforts in each of the above areas: - The criteria/application/selection of high school student based on interest and needs. - The criteria/specification for purchased equipment - The selection and hiring of graduate students as instructors who can not only teach, but also serve as role models for the incoming students. - The development of course material into two parts: foundational material required by everyone, and specialized material where the student selects his/her area of interest. Presented results will show how the summer-camps benefited the students through the focused instruction given by graduate students, and how the students gained valuable knowledge and problem-solving skills in certain STEM fields. - The mentorship provided by the CS faculty to the instructors and the students through scheduled visits and agile approach for the software projects assigned. - The development of soft skills: how the planned social activities helped in honing the students software skills and allowed them to interact with people from all over the world (through faculty mentorship, conference attendance, project presentation), and prepared them academically and socially for their upcoming university experience. By presenting our study, we hope that other institutions who are considering summer camps can benefit from our experience by adopting best practices while avoiding pitfall.

Keywords STEM Fields, Cybersecurity, Digital Forensics, and Mobile Computing, High School Summer Camps

Quweider, M. K., & Khan, F., & Zhang, L., & Rodriguez, Y., & Rodriguez, Y. (2020, June), Cybersecurity, Digital Forensics, and Mobile Computing: Building the Pipeline of Next-generation University Graduates through Focused High School Summer Camps Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34368

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2020 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015