INA, Ill. (Oct. 13, 2015) - Students can kick start their cyber security careers with some hands-on experience at the Southern Illinois Collegiate Cyber Co-op (SI3C) scholarship competition, which starts next week through a grant at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC).
Fifteen students from seven local community colleges will win $1,000 SI3C scholarships after completing a series of eight weekly, online security exercises and submitting an essay discussing the need for cyber security professionals. The first exercise will be available Monday, Oct. 19.
Ricky Robinson, RLC Computer Networking Professor, said some of the eight security exercises may include any number of events using a program called NETLAB+ which simulates computer attacks. Students will have to work on their own computer to isolate the issue and fix it.
“This is where the jobs are right now, in cyber security,†explained Robinson. “Businesses are needing people and they’re desperate for cyber security specialists everywhere. I would encourage anyone who is interested to try out the competition, just to get that real-world experience.â€
Robinson also said the SI3C competition is the first of its kind in the area for community college students. He expects RLC to compete at Cyber Defense, a similar event, in January also at SIUC.
Interested students can register for the competition at https://goo.gl/xuEiXa. All online security exercises will be completed on SIUC’s NETLAB+ virtual information technology laboratory at https://vitl.siu.edu. Essays will be evaluated by a committee of information security professionals from industry, academia, and government.
Information from SIUC states the scholarships will be awarded to students based on two criteria: the successful completion of all eight cyber exercises and the submission of documentation and a quality essay. Effort will be made to award a scholarship to at least one student from each SI3C partner school, including RLC.
The SI3C scholarship opportunities have been developed by the SIUC School of Information Systems and Applied Technologies (ISAT) and funded by the National Security Agency (NSA). Scholarships won will be awarded in the fall to be used for spring tuition at SIUC or the student’s current community college. One student from an underrepresented minority class will be eligible for an additional $800 scholarship.
For RLC students interested in learning more or registering for the contest, contact Robinson at 618-437-5321, Ext. 1789 or robinsonr@rlc.edu. For any questions about the SI3C scholarships, contact Tom Imboden, Associate Professor at SIUC’s School of ISAT, at 618-453-7296 or timboden@siu.edu.
