Educational Initiatives
Center of Academic Excellence Cyber Defense Program
USA was re-designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE- CD) in May 2022. This designation is awarded to institutions after a rigorous review of programs that have demonstrated their commitment to academic excellence in higher education and research in cyber defense. USA CFITS supports the educational and research endeavors of the CAE-CD program. CFITS faculty support the undergraduate Information Technology program curriculum development and research initiatives. We have also established research groups in Information Security, Computer Forensics, and Healthcare Information Systems. For more information on the USA CyberScholars program visit USA CyberScholars.
Camps
Davidson High School Computing Camp
The School of Computing hosted 51 incoming freshmen students from W.P. Davidson High School for a week-long summer camp focused on cybersecurity. Students received a broad introduction to cybersecurity subject matter through hands-on projects, guest speakers, group activities, and real-world scenario exercises. Camp topics included programming, robotics, and cyber physical systems, and students also participated in discussions about trending topics on safe online behavior. As a culminating activity in programming and robotics, students worked in teams to navigate a Sphero robot through a mini-maze. The Davidson High Computing Camp is open to all student and teacher participants at no cost. Funding and resources are provided by the School of Computing and the Center for Forensics, Information Technology and Security (CFITS) as well as from generous industry partners and corporate sponsors.
K-12 STEM
Implementation of our SoC K-12 Initiative: Math, Science, and Computing Initiative Project (4.1) is intended to increase the pool of qualified high school graduates in the area from which to recruit undergraduate students. Engaging industry partners that showed specific interest in K-12 math and science education, allowed accelerated the development of our program, with implementation in the Fall of 2012.
Partner School Field Trips
“Hands On Learning Lab Activities” (HOLLA) Partner Schools agree to participate in “whole grade” CS STEM learning interventions with CFITS and the USA School of Computing. These HOLLA’s are provided at no charge to the Partner School, and deliver high quality CS STEM learning in our K‐12 STEM Learning Lab at Shelby Hall. This well-equipped, modern facility has a state of the art laptop PC for each student, a larger screen controlled by the SoC faculty delivering the content at the table to each group of five students, plus one 60” screen at each end of the lab. Click here to view more information.
K-12 Robotics
Support for robotics learning experiences in K-12 has and continues to be utilized as a tool to enhance the integration of STEM educational concepts into our schools. We continue to support such activities as BEST, FIRST, LEGO, as well as various tech fairs and summer camps. Our investigators also participate as judges and educators in many robotics educational and competitive activities.