A hands-on cybersecurity curriculum using a robotics platform

Bernard Yett, Nicole Hutchins, Gordon Stein, Hamid Zare, Caitlin Snyder, Gautam Biswas, Mary Metelko, Akos Ledeczi

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

23 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper presents a study where high school students were taught computing and cybersecurity concepts using a robotics platform. 38 students attended a week-long summer camp, starting with projects such as a simulation-only game and a simple autonomous driving program for the robots to learn and apply computational thinking (CT) and networking skills. They were then assigned a series of challenges that required developing progressively more advanced cybersecurity measures to protect their robots. This culminated in a final challenge that required implementing defensive measures such as encryption, secure key exchange, and sequence numbers to prevent cyber attacks during robot operations.We used an evidencecentered design framework to construct rubrics for grading student work. The pre- and post-test results show that the interventions helped students learn cybersecurity and CT concepts, but they had difficulties with networking concepts. These results correlate with scores from the game and the final challenge. Overall, surveys show that the competition-based robotics learning framework was engaging to students, and it supported their learning. However, our intervention needs to be modified to help students learn networking concepts.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSIGCSE 2020 - Proceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
Pages1040-1046
Number of pages7
ISBN (Electronic)9781450367936
DOIs
StatePublished - 26 Feb 2020
Event51st ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2020 - Portland, United States
Duration: 11 Mar 202014 Mar 2020

Publication series

NameSIGCSE 2020 - Proceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

Conference

Conference51st ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2020
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityPortland
Period11/03/2014/03/20

Keywords

  • Block-based programming
  • Computational thinking
  • Computer science education
  • Cybersecurity
  • Networking
  • Robotics

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