Cyber Camp teaches introductory skills to local middle and high school students

Radford University hosted dozens of local middle school and high school students throughout May 2019 for the first-ever Cyber Camp.

Seventy students from Radford City’s John N. Dalton Intermediate School and Floyd and Pulaski county high schools visited campus over the course of three weeks to participate in the pilot STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) program, sponsored by the Artis College of Science and Technology. The camp was designed as “an experiment” to gauge students’ interest and enthusiasm in technology and cybersecurity with the idea that a larger program could be offered in the future to include more students, explained David Horton, camp co-organizer and assistant to the dean of the Artis College.

“If we can build interest at this level, we can build a bigger pool of future Highlander students and graduates, who will grow the Commonwealth's tech talent pipeline,” Horton continued.

Throughout the three-day camp, students were introduced to basic cyber literacy concepts and skillsets, such as networking, coding and malware. With guidance from Department of Information Technology Professor Jeff Pittges, Ph.D. and Instructor Freeman Lo, students also learned how to program Arduino robots (pictured at the right) to perform certain tasks, such as maneuver through mazes in the hallways and classrooms of Davis Hall.

Seventh-grade life science teacher Beverly Edwards traveled with her Dalton Intermediate School students to the Cyber Camp on May 22. As students meticulously programmed their small robots – some spinning and others following pathways mapped out on the ground - Edwards beamed with excitement for her young learners.

“I’m so impressed with what they’re learning and doing. It’s really reinforcing what they’ve learned in class and what they’re going to be learning next year, and so on,” she said. “This has been such a fun and educational field trip for these students. I already have a list of other students who want to participate next year.”

The following week, Floyd County High School students tested out their newly-learned skills. Eighth-graders Rosemary and Allyson were determined to program their robot to trace a foot-long “R” and “U” that were taped to the floor.

“It’s not too hard, just tedious,” Allyson explained.

With much patience, the students were finally successful and very proud of their accomplishment.

“This is definitely something I want to do when I get older,” Allyson said.

When the students were not participating in these classes and exercises, they were exploring Radford University’s campus and engaging with different members of the Radford family. Each group met with admissions staff, ate lunch in Dalton Dining Hall, visited the planetarium and toured the Museum of the Earth Sciences.

“This partnership with Radford University has been fantastic,” Edwards said. “We are looking forward to seeing this camp continue to grow in the future.”