The University of South Carolina Aiken recently found a creative way to staff a new security operations center — and give students hands-on cybersecurity training at the same time. We spoke with Ernest Pringle, vice chancellor for IT and CIO at USC Aiken, about creating a student-led SOC, helping students put cybersecurity theory into practice, forging regional cybersecurity partnerships, and more.
The University of Southern California (USC), long known for its advances in computer science and as a leading provider of tech talent, has announced a $1 billion-plus initiative called "Frontiers of Computing" to focus on "AI, machine learning and data science, augmented and virtual reality, robotics, gaming, and blockchain," according to a release.
Through a partnership with digital credentialing platform Accredible, Cengage is making it easier for students in its Introduction to Computing courses to showcase workforce skills to potential employers.
Cybersecurity training and certification organization SANS Institute has partnered with Google to launch the SANS Cloud Diversity Academy (SCDA), a training initiative aimed at helping underrepresented groups pursue a career in cybersecurity, with a particular focus on cloud security.
With Charlotte, NC, ranked by CompTIA in 2022 as the No. 1 town for information technology and No. 7 in all metropolitan areas in the U.S. for adding new tech jobs, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte has partnered with tech education company SkillStorm to offer instructor-led, asynchronous courses that train students for tech careers.
Plagiarism detection software Turnitin now includes new live AI-writing detection features that “identify the use of AI writing tools including ChatGPT, with 98% confidence,” the company said.
Thanks to the CIO's efforts on campus and through partnering with external cyber organizations, USC Aiken is enjoying a successful first year of its student-staffed Security Operations Center, expanding cyber-monitoring capabilities for not only the Aiken campus but also for sister campuses in the USC system — and the university is no longer short-staffed in the IT department.
The United States Department of Education has announced five finalists in its Future Finder Challenge, a competition announced last September seeking digital tools to help adult learners navigate from education to careers. Each finalist will receive $50,000 to help develop a prototype as well as six months of "virtual accelerator" assistance to further develop their product, ED explained in a news announcement.
Career training and aptitude assessment provider YouScience has launched a new education-to-career platform called Brightpath that helps students identify their natural aptitudes and skills, select the learning path and school coursework best aligned to their aptitudes and future career opportunities, connect with post-secondary programs matching their aptitudes and interests, find internships and jobs matching their aptitudes, and even earn CTE certifications.
Through its partnership with edX, an online degree and digital course content company, the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) will launch a fully online Master of Science degree in Artificial Intelligence (MSAI).