Buffalo State Hosts Cybersecurity Showcase and Competition for Middle, High School Students
Buffalo State University welcomed more than 55 middle and high school students from several public and private schools throughout Western New York on June 3 for the GenCyber Student Project Showcase and Competition.
Sponsored by the university’s Computer Information Systems (CIS) Department and funded by the National Security Agency, the showcase was free to students. Ten CIS faculty members and five CIS students oversaw the event, which took place on the first floor of the Technology Building and highlighted students’ posters and projects on different aspects of cybersecurity.
The event stemmed from a Buffalo State Cybersecurity Teachers Camp offered last summer to middle and high school teachers. CIS faculty members and a handful of outside experts, including FBI officers and a CIS alumna, presented sessions on topics such as cryptography, cyberbullying, child safety on the Internet, and careers in cybersecurity.
“Cybersecurity is a growing field in the computer science world that is so important for young people to understand, regardless of what profession they will eventually pursue.”
— Sarbani Banerjee, Professor, Computer Information Systems
“We taught the teachers how to teach cybersecurity concepts in their schools” said Sarbani Banerjee, professor of CIS and one of the showcase organizers. “They started cybersecurity clubs or began offering cybersecurity classes. The teachers really emphasized the importance of cybersecurity and cybersafety, and students responded to it.”
Several students also participated in a Capture the Flag competition. Divided into teams, they tried to answer cybersecurity questions pitched to them by Neal Mazur, chair and associate professor of CIS. A team from Allendale Columbia High School in Rochester took first place in the competition.
At the end of the day, the students’ projects and poster presentations were recognized in an awards ceremony.
“It was a stiff competition since many high-quality projects on topics such as cyber-hacking, secure password generation, digital footprints, password analyzers, cyber threats, cryptography, phishing attacks, and data privacy were presented,” Banerjee said, adding that one group hailed from the African American Cultural Center of Buffalo, where CIS students tutor students in the after-school program as a service-learning project.
“It was nice to see the results of their tutoring,” Banerjee said. “The participants, some as young as 12, were confidently sharing concepts related to cybersecurity. It’s a growing field in the computer science world that is so important for young people to understand, regardless of what profession they will eventually pursue.”
Inset photo: The winning team from Allendale Columbia High School in Rochester, with their teacher, blue shirt, second from right.
Photos by CIS student Shadman Ahmed.
