NEWS

Dr. Brad Glisson, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Louisiana Tech University, is recruiting a team to work on a U.S. Department of Defense project that will culminate in an annual red-teaming competition for high school students.

The red team competition will be designed to gamify network attacks, helping participants acquire a better understanding of how attacks take place puts them in a strong position to defend networks in the future. The competition provides students with opportunities to learn and apply technical skills as well as soft skills like communication and collaboration.

Glisson said the competition is intended to help inspire the next generation of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) experts, allowing them to develop skills that are important to innovation and national security in a fun way.

“Students who participate in our red teaming competition will get rewarded for breaching our systems in our virtual network,” Glisson said. “They’ll have the opportunity to scan for open ports, brute force passwords, launch shells, and set up backdoors to the computers on the virtual network. By learning to launch attacks, they will be better prepared to develop defensive strategies and more knowledgeable about what they can do with computer science and cyber engineering degrees. My hope is that this competition will help more high school students decide to pursue STEM degrees that will lead to cyber defense careers.”

Glisson is recruiting two doctoral students with knowledge of networks and defense strategies and experience writing code to help build the game configuration and design a scoreboard. The students will also help set up and monitor the competitions. Students majoring in Computational Analysis and Modeling or Engineering with a concentration in Cyberspace Engineering are preferred.

For more information about the job openings or the red team competition, contact Glisson.