High school students get technology crash course at TTU's GenCyber camp

Nearly two dozen high school students and 10 teachers from across the state recently met at Tennessee Tech University for the seventh annual GenCyber camp, hosted each year by Tech’s Cybersecurity Education, Research and Outreach Center (CEROC).

Over the course of the six-day camp, students participated in a number of cybersecurity activities concluding with a final project presentation on a timely cybersecurity topic. The campers are mentored by current computer science students at Tech. The camp also brings in government and industry professionals to give advice, tell stories and share their insights.

Teacher participants in the camp completed a ten-hour pre-professional development program and a three-day camp integration program developing new cybersecurity classroom exercises that were tested during the camp.

“Each student had to apply for the camp,” said Eric Brown, CEROC’s associate director for workforce development at Tech. “They had to provide a couple short narratives – what did they know about cyber, what did they want to know about cyber, and why did they want to come to the camp. They had to have an interest and want to be here. We ended up with an excellent group.”

A longtime leader in cybersecurity issues, Tech was hand-selected by the National Security Agency (NSA) and National Science Foundation (NSF) as the sole GenCyber camp site in the state of Tennessee. The two federal agencies jointly support GenCyber camps across the country to “Ignite, sustain, and increase awareness of K12 cybersecurity content and cybersecurity postsecondary and career opportunities for participants.” Tech is additionally recognized as a center of academic excellence in cybersecurity by the NSA.

“These particular camps provide a way to show kids another view of computer science and help them see some other possibilities,” explained Brown. “Cyber is going to be a cross-section of every job area, no matter where they go. If we can get kids excited about it now, it becomes part of what they think about when they go into their profession. Some of these kids that come through this program would have never walked this path if not for this camp.”

For 2024, CEROC aims to impact more high school students by taking its GenCyber camp on the road. This program will make use of the Tennessee Tech STEMmobile – a 53-foot tractor-trailer fully stocked with STEM instructional materials that has traveled to schools across the state since 2013 – and bring the GenCyber experience directly to students with mobile versions of the cyber exercises used during the on-site camp.

“We hope to reach over 4,000 high school students across the state over the next 16 months,” added Brown. “During these cyber road shows, not only will students participate in some incredible cyber activities, district teachers and school counselors will be offered professional development opportunities. CEROC will also be offering mini grants in support of student involvement in cyber programs.”

This year’s GenCyber camp comes on the heels of the enactment of the state of Tennessee’s fiscal year 2024 budget, which included $1.2 million for CEROC – signaling lawmakers’ recognition of Tech's role as the state’s higher education leader in cybersecurity.

“It was a great vote of confidence,” said Brown, who explained that the funding will be used in part to scale up Tech’s Golden Eagle Cyber Certificate Program. The online program introduces high school students to cybersecurity-related topics while allowing them to earn up to nine hours of undergraduate college credit and a program completion certificate.

“This is our next big push to help K-12 students get into the cyber realm and provide kids the same opportunities that we get to do once a year with GenCyber,” said Brown. “It is also congruent with efforts being made by Governor Lee’s administration to increase computer science instructional programs and cyber programs across the state.”

CEROC additionally has plans to expand its research footprint in the coming years, bolstered by new laboratory spaces in the forthcoming Ashraf Islam Engineering Building. To date, CEROC has activated more than 80 research grants totaling over $10 million on topics ranging from quantum computing and next-generation networks to swarm intelligence and A.I. in agriculture.

Learn more about Tech’s CEROC at www.tntech.edu/CEROC.