Dr. Heydari Receives External Funding for a Cyber Defense Boot Camp for High School Technology Teachers

Drs. M. Hossain Heydari, Brett Tjaden, and Xunhua Wang, Professors in the Computer Science Department, have been awarded two grants ($99,180.82 and $92,791.63) from the National Security Agency for the 2016 GenCyber Program. The first camp, offered June 20-24, is titled “2016 GenCyber: Cyber Defense Bootcamp for High School Technology Teachers” and the second camp, offered July 11-15, is designed to help high school teachers prepare their students for the national CyberPatriot competitions. So, it is titled “2016 GenCyber: Cyber Defense Bootcamp for Prospective CyberPatriot Coaches”.  

A team of undergraduate JMU students is helping to support the two week-long Cyber Defense Boot Camps for high school technology teachers, building on the experience gained from the previous boot camps and incorporating newly developed web-based, interactive, and gaming-style pedagogical tools.

Dr. Heydari and his team held their first weeklong boot camp in June 2013 and had very successful results and positive feedback. They offered two bootcamps last summer, one was funded by the Virginia Center for Innovative Technology and the GenCyber funded the other camp. They now plan to build off their previous program by improving the lectures and hands-on exercises as well as incorporating new tools. According to Dr. Heydari’s proposal, “High school technology teachers are in a critical position to both oversee the security of the labs at their institutions and to inspire their students to study information assurance and cyber defense. We will strive to empower them to do both after attending our boot camp.”

The three professors won the “Innovation in Higher Education Award” from the Shenandoah Valley Tech Council, for their efforts for these bootcamps.

Best of luck to Dr. Heydari and his team as they proceed with their summer GenCyber boot camp!