Opportunities for Students

Courses in the ISERC

The ISERC is being used for classes for the first time in Spring 2018. Dr. Aaron Brantly is teaching PSCI 2984 - The Integrated Nature of Today's Security: Foundations of Complex Security Systems, a newly designed course that makes use of the ISERC to teach students about global security from a political, business, and technological standpoint. Students in this course will have the opportunity to learn from guest speakers from across the university, industry, and government, while also preparing to tackle a simulated real-world crisis response scenario.

ISERC student champions

The ISERC student champion program is all about developing skills that will help bridge the gap between the classroom and career. As the ISERC runs events over the academic year, students who engage with these opportunities will unlock skills and new areas of knowledge. To encourage participation and reward those who take part, students collect activity badges.

Each activity will count towards different tracks:

• ISERC Builder: these events focus on hands-on skills and learning something new about security (e.g., how to use a tool, how to design more securely, how to do security analysis). Students who take part in these activities will be able to describe specific examples of using or applying security tools and methods.
• ISERC Leader: these events focus on professional skills and learning something new about security (e.g., different approaches to security work, and how to assess risk). Students who take part in these activities will be able to describe and communicate the role of security in different organizations and sectors.
• ISERC Scholar*: these events focus on research skills and a more academic approach to the topic of security (e.g., reading articles, collecting data, designing studies and writing papers). Students who take part in these activities will be able to describe demonstrate an academic understanding of security.

* Note: students who work with the ISERC on research projects are automatically awarded this status.

To collect activity badges, students submit a short reflection exercise at the end of the event. E.g., ‘How have you used or applied security tools and methods? What have you learned? How do you think this might be helpful in the future?’. When students have 3 activity badges in a particular track they can use the Builder, Leader or Scholar track award on their posters and resumes.

For an idea of the kinds of events the ISERC hosts, please see this article about a workshop run in collaboration with Virginia Tech’s Cybersecurity Club (CyberVT). It takes a team: real-time response and resilience for cybersecurity explored the organizational impact of ransomware, negotiation tips, and hands-on capture-the-flag exercises.