News Byte: Preparing the Next Generation of Cybersecurity Experts

New York Institute of Technology has just completed the final stages of its participation in “Strengthening the Cisco Cybersecurity Pipeline,” an initiative for teachers affiliated with the New York City Department of Education’s Career and Technical Education initiative.

In the summer of 2019, the project kicked off with New York Tech faculty working with instructors to train 24 high school teachers in cybersecurity. The training included a two-day introductory cybersecurity course completed by all 24 teachers, as well as a weeklong advanced cybersecurity course complete by 10 teachers. The training is the first step for high schools to offer a Cisco cybersecurity curriculum at their schools, with assistance from the Northeast Cisco Academy Support and Training Center.

The project, led by Marta Panero, Ph.D., New York Tech’s executive director of external affairs and principal investigator (PI), and Amy Bravo, M.A., senior director of international and experiential education and co-PI, was funded by the Silicon Valley Foundation.

The initiative also included a mentoring program to help the trained teachers implement the Cisco cybersecurity curriculum in their classes. During the spring and fall of 2020, graduate students enrolled in New York Tech’s computer science and cybersecurity programs worked closely with the city schoolteachers and students. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the planned in-person interaction switched to virtual mentoring. The graduate students, who reviewed lessons with the high school students and helped them complete group assignments, included:

• Abhishek Naik
• Chintan Popat
• Abhishek Patel
• Muhammed Younis
• Manthan Mukeshkumar Patel