The rapid development and rollout of mobile infrastructure and applications not only bring convenience to people's daily lives, but also give birth to threats that can jeopardize each individual's privacy and national security. Therefore, it is critical to train and educate the future workforce on the fundamental aspects of mobile security relevant to advanced cyberinfrastructure, and to improve their ability to identify, prevent, and respond to emerging threats. This project designs and develops a wide variety of intriguing and challenging hands-on laboratories that aim to create Eureka Experiences in reference to the "aha!" moment of understanding a previously incomprehensible concept. Such an illuminating learning experience is created by incorporating Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) activities to hands-on laboratories. Overall, this project meets the pressing and essential needs in the Computer Science and Information Technology curricula, has a strong impact on developing the future workforce' core competencies and preparedness in mobile security related to advanced cyberinfrastructure, and helps advance national security.
In this project, three types of hands-on laboratories are designed and developed: i) Exploratory; ii) Core; and, iii) Advanced. The primary purpose of exploratory labs is to spark the interests of high school and community college students from diverse backgrounds to pursue a career in cybersecurity in mobile ecosystems related to advanced cyberinfrastructure. Core labs help prepare both undergraduate and graduate students in STEM for productive cybersecurity careers by enabling enduring understanding of key security concepts and technologies through hands-on practice in an interactive setting. Advanced labs assist future research workforce development by not only introducing emerging security technologies and threats, but also inspiring student research in related fields. In addition, a universal lab platform that is affordable and flexible is designed and developed. This project helps develop core competencies in a number of areas relevant to advanced cyberinfrastructure including how to secure mobile devices and wireless systems, protect large scale and streaming data from mobile and other sources, ensure user privacy, and prevent intrusion. By engaging all stakeholders during the development process, this project increases the likelihood of wide adoption of the developed materials by academic and professional communities.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
