Queen’s University Belfast is, this week, running the Northern Ireland leg of a national programme to upskill young people in cyber security and related aspects of AI and data-driven technologies.
The UK government-backed scheme involves 300 students aged 16 and 17 at 11 different sites across the UK.
The students are getting hands-on experience in encryption technologies, digital forensics and cyber-investigation techniques as well as hearing from industry specialists and tackling real-world challenges involving open-source intelligence-gathering and penetration testing.
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Queen's University is a UK Government-appointed Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Education and the current holder of a ‘Gold’ award for its efforts to strengthen cyber security awareness across education, university-wide operations and the wider community. This week’s summer school is an example of Queen’s outreach work to educate the wider public about cyber security.
The Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) at Queen’s is also the UK’s official Innovation & Knowledge Centre for cyber security and, separately, an Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research.
Queen’s is welcoming students from a range of schools across NI including St Patrick’s College Dungannon; St Catherine’s College Armagh; Ballyclare High School; St Patrick’s High School Keady; alongside Belfast schools including St Dominic’s Grammar; Newtownabbey Community College; Victoria College; Ashfield High School; and Royal Belfast Academic Institution to take part in the programme.
Dr Sandra Scott-Hayward, Senior Lecturer at CSIT and the Queen’s lead for the summer school, said:
“We’re delighted to bring these enthusiastic young people to Queen’s to participate in a nationwide cyber security training course and competition. Alongside the course, they have a wonderful opportunity to hear from our CSIT staff and students and local cyber security industry experts to learn more about careers in cyber security.
“We hope that this will inspire them towards further studies and future careers in this exciting area.”
The ‘CyberFirst Advanced’ course is being delivered by UK defence company QinetiQ in partnership with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). Chris Ensor, the NCSC’s Deputy Director for National Resilience Capabilities said:
"This partnership with industry and academia marks another important step in expanding access to high-quality, cyber security education, benefiting even more students across the UK.
"Inspiring the next generation of cyber talent is vital to the UK’s digital future, and we look forward to the continued broadening of access to these resources."
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James Willis, Chief Executive Officer, QinetiQ UK Intelligence, added:
“As demand for cyber security expertise continues to grow, initiatives such as CyberFirst play an important role in building a diverse pipeline of talent and strengthening the UK’s future cyber resilience.
"Our cyber experts have firsthand experience of protecting a range of partners against complex threats across the globe and so understand just how important it is to inspire future generations into the industry."
CSIT at Queen’s sits within Momentum One Zero, a £70M investment as part of the Belfast Region City Deal. Queen's is leading on this City Deal project to create a digital powerhouse in the Titanic area of Belfast, where a major building expansion is currently underway.
Momentum One Zero is bringing together experts in digital transformation and data innovation from industry, business and academia to transform the local health, agrifood and cyber security sectors for the digital age.
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