Alamo Cyber-STEM Education Network

Cultivating cyber operators across academic and career, disciplines and pathways 

To meet the growing need for cyber security professionals, Dr. Greg White from the Center for Infrastructure Assurance (CIAS) supports CyberPatriot and the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NCCDC). CyberPatriot is a computer cyber defense competition facilitated by the U.S. Air Force Association. Designed to build the human component of cyber security, Cyber Patriot and the high school program's older sibling the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition deliver on urgently needed curricula and human capital formation to meet the needs of the 21st century in the world of cyber--and beyond.

• U.S. Cyber Patriot Web Site
• U.S. Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition
• San Antonio Information Technology and Security Academy

CyberPatriot teams all start online competing in cyber security exercises by defending systems in a virtual network sandbox culminating in national finals in Washington, D.C. The educational component and qualification rounds of the competition are delivered online at the teams’ home locations from September to early January. During the 2011-2012 school year, CyberPatriot hosts 1,014 high school teams to compete in the annual competition. 403 open division teams and 611 service division teams (JROTC and/or civil air patrol) are competing. Each team consists of up to 5 students and supporting coaches/teachers, mentors, volunteers, and sponsors constituting. Championships are conducted in mid-March 2012 in at the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. National titles include first, second and third overall in each division constituting the Commander-in-Chief’s Cup (All Service Division) and the President’s Cup (Open Division). 

The cyber defense competition provides high school students the opportunity to gain hands-on, practical knowledge in preparation for post-secondary education and jobs in cyber-STEM career fields. CyberPatriot began in February 2009 with a demonstration and immediately went nationwide for the 2009-10 school year competition, staging the largest High School Cyber Defense Competition ever conducted. The next step, full nationwide deployment, has been made possible by grants from Northrop Grumman Corporation. Northrop has committed to significant multi-year funding and extensive in-kind support for the initiative. The program will reach many thousands of students annually and has started global competitions in the 2011-2012 academic year.

Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition

CyberPatriot High School Computer Defense Competition

THE CYBER DEFENSE COMPETITION FRAMEWORK & TECH

CyberPatriot IV begins in the spring 2011 to allow coach preparation over the summer. A “two- division” approach was chosen to attract both the college prep computer science students in the “Open Division” and the more diverse audience numbering over 500,000 in the nation’s JROTC detachments of all services. Both Divisions will proceed through a similar, but distinct, series of online training and qualification rounds to select finalists for the same D.C. area in-person championship. The internet-delivered education and competition enables this program to reach thousands of students at modest expense, delivering unprecedented “bang for the buck” in an urgently needed skill set. Each CyberPatriot team will start the competition with identically mis-configured system(s). For the initial qualification rounds there is a single target (VMware image) that can only be run on a single machine for each team.

• Virtual Competition - Round 1 all teams each division - one image, timed (all teams advance)

• Virtual Competition - Round 2 all teams each division -- two images, timed (based on round 1 and 2 combined scores, teams will advance to round 3)

• Virtual Competition - Round 3 qualifying teams -- up to three image targets will be used, timed

• National Finals - 3 Rounds 18 teams in each division, 3 in each division emerge as first, second and third place with a national champion crowned as Commander-in-Chief’s Cup (All Service Division) and the President’s Cup (Open Division).

The virtual qualification rounds and finals at the Gaylord are designed to test each team’s ability to find and remediate vulnerabilities that are pre-configured into a VMware image (called a “Target”). The students download to their computer (doesn’t matter where) an insecurely configured VMware image which contains a CyberNEXS™ client. That client monitors student actions and reports positive or negative changes to the central CyberNEXS™ server in San Diego. When the client reports a change, the scoring system on the central server sends back to the student their new score so that they can track their own progress. They have six hours in which to compete during a 30 hour period. At the end of the competition, SAIC sends the results to the Air Force Association. CyberNEXS capabilities include:

• Real-world, live training on systems that emulate the production environment
• Initial training conducted using a structured, on-site methodology; a "train the trainer" model can provide continuity for routine exercising thereafter
• Continual training capability for routine training and timely exposure to new threat scenarios as they are released
• Follow-on remote training as an option to continue the training experience
• Up-to-date scenarios to keep current with the changing threat
• Sharpening of individual cyber skills, while fostering a teamwork approach to problem solving
• A training curriculum that addresses all of the basic day-to-day practices required to administer network and system security
• Real-time, comprehensive performance feedback to reinforce successful behavior
  (Source: SAIC Web Site, CyberNEXS)

The CYBERNEXS  competition platform is used for these competitions. The teams are assessed on a point-basis by the CyberNEXS scoring system and feedback on progress is provided in near real time.  The knowledge, skills and abilities demonstrated through progression from round-to-round in the cyber patriot competition generally demonstrate handling increasing complexity, high velocity decision making and situational fluency in network defense scenarios.

SAN ANTONIO CYBER EDUCATION NETWORK (CYBER-STEM)

In August of 2003, the 78th Texas Legislature recognized the Information technology and Security Academy (ITSA) and the Alamo Area Aerospace Academy (AAAA) as models of successful Texas workforce programs. In 2010, San Antonio’s ITSA placed third in CyberPatriot’s open division for all non-service academy high schools. In 2010, San Antonio’s ITSA placed third in CyberPatriot’s open division for all non-service academy high schools.

Information Technology and Security Academy (ITSA)

San Antonio’s formal and informal networks link private and public stakeholders focused on research, development and commercialization (diffusion of innovation) in critical areas of national importance to cyber and STEM across industries, institutions, and P-20 education. Today, initiatives of the San Antonio’s Cyber Innovation and Research Consortium (CIRC) include student recruitment, retention, completion, placement and workforce transitions programs that serve a range of clients from children six years old to re-tooling adults, military service members, veterans and wounded warriors. CIRC has been working for a decade to link economic development, education, workforce, R&D and commercialization.

Specific goals include cross-institutional collaboration for cyber first response and human capital development including professional development, recruiting, certification and evaluation. CIRC is leading collaboration among the city's universities in areas including emerging security technology, workforce needs, and cyber education methods and practice. Education goals are to link cyber to all fields of academic inquiry and to work the full spectrum of cyber creativity, cyber citizenship, cyber bullying, cyber ethics, cyber emergency response, and cyber security) and inter-organizational networks for STEM human capital development. Online infrastructure is being staged for cyber competitions, mentoring of teams and networks and fostering a collegial and supportive community for all who are interested to learn and help create the future of cyber education.

San Antonio Cyber-STEM Network

Image: Adapted October 9, 2011 by Jim Brazell from Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, Liberating Voices! A Pattern Language for Communications Revolution, San Antonio Inter-Organizational Network Opening a Public Sphere for Cyber Security and Education, Workforce and Economic Development Practitioners, Jim Brazell and Doug Monroe, 2003

The University of Texas San Antonio, Texas A&M-San Antonio and the Alamo College all have major initiatives related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), creativity, innovation and connecting cyber. Alamo Colleges include San Antonio College, St. Philip’s College, Northeast Lakeview College, Palo Alto College, and Northwest Vista College.

Texas A&M is in the process of building a next generation community that enables community stakeholder to participate in the design of communities and schools. By creating a dynamic relationship based on feedback, Texas A&M-San Antonio is winning hearts and minds on the Alamo city’s South side. This new relationship between university and community started with a blank piece of paper and an area of town that is being developed along with Toyota.