Cybersecurity camp at UWGB hopes to bridge gap in need for talent

According to the National Security Agency (NSA) there's a shortfall of cybersecurity professionals in the U.S including here in Wisconsin.

To bridge the gap there's a cybersecurity camp happening this week called Gencyber UWGB for teachers wanting to bring the interest of this profession to their classrooms. Cyberseek.org shows the demand versus supply. In Wisconsin there is a high need for cybersecurity experts but it's a nationwide trend. Experts expect the gap to grow over the next few years.

“We're trying to sort of see how we can address that and this is one was of addressing it, trying to get people to learn what cybersecurity is, more importantly it's not rocket science, everyone can learn to do it,” said Dr. Ankur Chattophyay, Assistant Professor in the Department of Information and Computing Sciences at UWGB.

Through a grant and sponsored through the NSA and NFA, this Gencyber camp is the only one of its kind in Wisconsin. It's bringing educators together who can then teach it to their own students in a way that's interesting and fun.

“I think it's the best way to do it, and to just get people interested in it, and so it's not just the information, but it's also the pedagogy of how to communicate that and to make it interesting, and to make it relevant, I believe they're doing a really good job,” said Dana Saito-Stehberger, a participant of the camp.

Saito-Stehberger started her career in ESL but has seen more of an opportunity through STEM. She said, “I think that cybersecurity is an important piece of the big technical STEM movement.”

The camp is specialized knowledge but the instructors believe it could be the start of a trend that can carry on throughout other school districts.

“Our hope is really by the end of this year every teacher would have done an activity in their respective schools and would have made a slightly bigger impact in terms of reaching out to the students so it's not just limited to these 25 teachers,” said Dr. Chattophyay.