Through a curriculum based on courses from the U.S. Air Force Association’s National Youth Cyber Education Program, the camp will expose students to experts in the field and cover a variety of topics and technical skills, including digital literacy, cyber ethics, systems security, and Windows and Ubuntu systems administration.
Participants will be assigned to standard or advanced groups depending on their experience, so anyone with basic and advanced levels of knowledge can join. At the end of the week, participants will take part in a hacking simulation competition to test what they have learned by identifying, securing and defending against vulnerabilities.
Mr Tomlinson praised the lecturers for their kindness, patience and willingness to allow students to “learn at their own pace”.
Ulreich estimates that 70 percent of the camp’s instructors are employees of the University of Pittsburgh’s IT department, and they’re all volunteers.
“Many people return after several years, which is a testament to how efficiently the camp is run and how much of an impact they recognize the camp has on students,” she said.
For additional instructors, Pittsburgh Cyber is turning to educators from local high schools and community colleges, as well as security analysts from UPMC. These teachers are often paired with Pittsburgh IT employees, blending technical expertise with classroom management skills to create a richer student experience, she says.
This collaboration has been a win-win for everyone, not just the students.
“When we started, it was rare to see or find this type of content being taught in high school classes, but now a lot of STEM teachers are being asked and excited to incorporate some of this content into their classes,” Ulreich said. “It’s summer off and they get paid, so it’s nice.”
In addition to the lecturers’ generosity, Ulreich expressed his gratitude to the EQT Foundation, which has been the program’s main sponsor for the past few years, for its financial contributions and commitment to talent development.
Ulreich, who is committed to diversifying the cybersecurity industry, said he is proud that his team’s statistics are “above the industry average.” At last year’s camp, 58% of attendees were non-white and a quarter of the seats were reserved for women.
“We are trying to get more girls to participate. Although we are not where we would like to be, we have seen a steady increase and have never seen a dip since the camp began. It makes us ask, ‘why?’ and dig deeper. This is an opportunity.”
Due to the success of this program and requests from students and parents for more offerings, Pittsburgh Cyber worked with Ahmed Ibrahim, a faculty member in the School of Computing and Informatics, to organize Advanced CyberCamp 2.0, a three-day virtual course starting in July. Registration filled up within three days.
“We’ve seen this work,” Ulreich said. “Building relationships, prioritizing partnerships, and even when it doesn’t seem to make sense on paper, it’s incredible to see the success and benefits to students and community members in real life.”
“We have the best partners and team members who consistently go above and beyond what is expected of us, which is really important because these skills are becoming more and more important as we move forward in life and in our careers.”
— Kara Henderson, photo by Amy Obizinski
