By MARY GALES ASKREN, Madison Daily Leader
MADISON, SD (AP) – Enthusiasm is contagious. Nowhere is this more evident this week than at the GenCyber Co-ed Camp at Dakota State University. Of the six Madison students present, five are related.
“I let most of my family come with me,” says Enoch Martin, who is attending the camp for the third time.
In the first year he attended, Martin was the only Madison student to do this. This year he is accompanied by his brother Calvin and his cousins Grant Hasleton, Nathan Hasleton and Addy Meyer. Maggie Engebretson is also there.
In a conversation that fluctuated between enthusiastic amazement, serious thought and amusing teasing, Martin told of his experiences at the annual camp at the DSU. As part of a nationwide initiative funded by the National Security Agency and the National Science Foundation, the camps are designed to inspire “the next generation of CYBER stars” who give the camps their name.
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The DSU carried out the program in 2014 as a pilot project.
“It was literally a napkin idea,” said Kyle Cronin, program director.
The university is now running three GenCyber camps – one for high school students in grades 10-12, one for teachers, and one for middle school girls.
Students from 16 states are attending the coed camp this week. Of the 130 students attending, 82 are from South Dakota and about a third are female. Word of mouth has proven to be the best form of advertising for the camp, the Madison Daily Leader reported.
“We play with things and expose children to what they would learn at college level,” says Cronin, describing the program.
Each day offers training in the core areas of programming, network and cybersecurity concepts, as well as a variety of other electives for campers to explore. While some electives – like a sequence in programming in another language – sound like traditional computer and cyber training, others sound more like Criminal Activities 101.
Students can learn to pick locks. You can learn how to hijack and decrypt radio waves used in a wireless society. They do this with wireless doorbells, which is relatively harmless, but the same concept applies to unlocking car doors, according to Cronin.
“We want the children to understand how technology really works,” he said. Cronin noted that students also learn about situational ethics, about using technology and skills for the right purposes.
In addition to a wide range of learning opportunities, campers are given backpacks, water bottles, and other loot, including a computer smaller than a hand called a Raspberry Pi.
When Martin talked about the camp, he was referring to this device when talking about the easy camaraderie that exists among the participating students.
“It’s so cool,” he said. “Everyone here is into the same things. We’re all here for the same thing – it’s probably these Raspberry Pis. “
The small computer is used for a variety of sessions, including one called “Headless Pi,” which uses only a wireless connection. In other sessions it is connected to a keyboard and monitor.
“You are so incredibly small. They are so much fun – and I get it for free, ”enthused Martin.
One of the sessions he attended involved creating a text adventure, which is like a video game that uses text only, or a book that allows the reader to create their own adventures. He plans to use his Raspberry Pi to continue working on his text adventure.
Martin also showed off several projects he constructed in class, including a love detector that randomly generates a number from one to five when two people press buttons at the same time, and a sound sensor that flashes LED lights when a microphone activates sound on.
He spoke more seriously about the impact of the GenCyber camps on his future plans.
“It gave me a glimpse of what I wanted to do,” said Martin. He plans to enroll in DSU’s new Cyber Leadership and Intelligence program to get into cyber law.
Because the camps are designed to strengthen the pipeline of people who choose to pursue careers in cybersecurity or a related field, this is the type of outcome we want.
However, Cronin said it would be equally beneficial for those who find cybersecurity is of no concern to them.
Cronin doesn’t know how many of the GenCyber campers have participated in the DSU since the first camp, but he is sure some do because he sees the loot years later.
“We give backpacks to all students,” he said. “It’s a different backpack every year. When the freshmen come to campus, we see these backpacks. “
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