Three hundred students from Edgewood Jr. High School, Bloomington North High School, The Academy of Science and Entrepreneurship, and Jackson Creek Middle School attended IVY Tech’s STEM and Life Sciences Career Fair this month. Students were able to visit with representatives from a wide variety of local schools and businesses, learning about the STEM workforce opportunities that Indiana has to offer.
IU’s Center on Security & Privacy in Informatics, Computing & Engineering (SPICE) was present at the event, giving students information about the educational opportunities at the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing & Engineering. Students learned about cybersecurity courses, research opportunities for undergraduate students, the very active student clubs at Luddy, and work opportunities at the university itself.
Representing Luddy was SPICE project manager, Joshua Streiff, who arrived with toys to hack, cryptography sheets to solve, and answers for student questions. He shared information about opportunities like IU’s Cyber Security Club, IoT Hacker House, and Capture the Flag club and teams. Students got hands-on time doing penetration testing and device threat modeling with examples of breached Internet of Things (IoT) children’s toys.
As SPICE project manager explains these activities are more than just interest and engagement tools:
“Young people interested in how things work, and how they might be misused, need a safe space to learn ethical hacking. They need to be able to do it themselves, with their own hands. It is the best way they can learn fundamental skills and see if this is a future career they would like to pursue.”
SPICE looks forward to seeing some of these students at one of Luddy’s summer camps or in the future as Indiana University students.