Fostering Transparent Research Collaborations Between Two- and Four-Year Institutions in Industrial Cybersecurity Education

Fostering Transparent Research Collaborations Between Two- and Four-Year Institutions in Industrial Cybersecurity Education

연구 분야: Infrastructure

학회: SIGITE '24: Proceedings of the 25th Annual Conference on Information Technology Education

Research experience opportunities for undergraduate education are recognized as an effective practice to increase students’ enthusiasm for pursuing graduate degrees, such as a master’s or Ph.D. These opportunities involve training students during their undergraduate studies to reduce the preliminary work gap and are intentionally designed towards the end of their academic career to boost their interest in their degrees. Physical industrial control systems, a cybersecurity area, have been emerging in recent years, especially due to their high vulnerability. Research and study of these systems are challenging because it is difficult to find actual industrial control systems with accessible implementation, primarily due to their size and cost. While many research experiences for undergraduate initiatives have been implemented in the past, experiences with community colleges in the area of cybersecurity, particularly physical industrial control systems, have been limited. In this paper, we present an experience report on how two-year and four-year institutions have been collaborating through a partnership focused on not only providing students with research experience but also working on an existing, highly demanded cybersecurity area. This initiative aligns with the vision of the Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense, aiming to develop competencies aligned with work roles according to the NICE framework. The model proposed has been developed through a CAHSI Google Research opportunity.