Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Monday, June 7, 2010

Post Camp Surveys

Please click the following link and complete the post Cyber Discovery Camp Survey


Friday, June 4, 2010

Saturday Itinerary

7:30 - 9:30 -- Story-Line Presentations (individual teams) -Hale Hall (East Entrance)
Each team will present no longer than 10 minutes. The following is the list of start times that was randomly generated for the schools. Please arrive at least 10 minutes to your start time.
  • 7:30 - Benton
  • 7:40 - El Dorado
  • 7:50 - Southwood
  • 8:00 - West Monroe
  • 8:10 - North DeSoto
  • 8:20 - 8:30 BREAK
  • 8:30 - Ruston
  • 8:40 - Byrd
  • 8:50 - Minden
  • 9:00 - Airline
  • 9:10 - Parkway
9:30 - 11:30 -- Final Cyber Challenge

11:30 -- Lunch and Presentations - Tolliver Hall

1:30 - 3:00 Check-out - Women's Center

Day 4 Video

Check out the link to the video of Cyber Discovery Camp Day 4!

Cyber Operations assignment

Imagine that President Obama has placed you in charge of developing a propaganda campaign that would convince insurgents in Afghanistan to lay down their weapons and support the government. Which themes would you stress? Which media would you use? Which techniques would you employ? Outline your strategy and provide some sample pieces. Use relevant sources from the web to inform and support your strategy. REMEMBER YOUR AUDIENCE.

Each group must email a response of no more that 600 words in .rtf format to briane@latech.edu and jmhire@latech.edu by 8am on Saturday, June 5 (please note that the 600-word limit applies only to the strategy and not the sample pieces). Please remember to omit all identifying information from the essay and name the file a random four-digit number, e.g. 5432.rtf. Remember this number! For grading criteria, please view our rubric here.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Friday Itinerary

8:00-9:00 Breakfast

9:00-9:30 Movie Discussion (Mixed Small Groups)

9:30-11:00* Hands-On-Lab (Full Group)
Topic: Boe-Bot Activitiy (open-ended preparation for final challenge)

11:00-11:15 Break

11:15-12:00 Cyber Policy and Ethics (Full Group)

Theme: Cyber Operations

12:00-1:00 Lunch

1:30 - 3:30* Hands-On-Lab (Full Group)
Open-ended preparation for final challenge

3:30-5:30* Team Time (School Groups)

5:30-6:30 Dinner

7:00-8:30 Team Time (Small groups) - arena in Memorial Gym

9:00-11:00 Team Time (School Groups) - in rooms

11:00 Lights out

*Green-screen time to be scheduled for 20 minute sessions
3 sessions in the 9:30-11:00 time slot
4 sessions in the 1:30-3:30 time slot
3 sessions in the 4:00-5:30 time slot

Exemplary essay

Here were the two assignments that came in first place:

First essay

Second essay

Cyber threats assignment

Imagine that you work in the historical division of the Department of Homeland Security. Your director informs you that the CIA has recently picked up some intelligence that suggests a series of possible attacks against the United States in the next few weeks. She wants you to work up a threat assessment. She asks you to research the American experience with hostile governments and organizations in the 20th century (especially Germany and anarchist organizations) and come up with some useful lessons that could inform policy in the present. Based on what happened earlier, what kinds of actions might the government expect? Why were these entities interested in harming the United States? Based on the different threats today and the new cyber infrastructure, what might be different? What kinds of policies should the American government implement to protect the American people?

Here are some references for incidents mentioned in the briefings:

Black Tom Explosion
George Dasch case
Wall Street Bombing

Each group must email a response of no more that 600 words in .rtf format to briane@latech.edu and jmhire@latech.edu by 8am on Friday, June 4. Please remember to omit all identifying information from the essay and name the file a random four-digit number, e.g. 5432.rtf. Remember this number! For grading criteria, please view our rubric here.

How to Submit your Cyberfort

I think this will be the simplest way to submit your cyberfort: email it to Bill Willoughby as an attachment. Before you submit your fort, please perform these tasks:

Delete all extraneous information in your 3-D file . . . All JaLeesa, Sean, and myself need is your Cyberfort. Not the arena, not the model of the Boe-bot, not the example forts, and no extra lines ro surfaces in your model.

IMPORTANT!!! Name your file after your school! If you do not designate the file this way, we will not know which cut-out belongs to which school.


Send your file by 6:30 PM today (Thursday June 3,2010) to this email address: wtwillou "at" latech.edu (wtwillou@latech.edu)

Any files date stamped as submitted after this time will not be judged and therefore gain no points for the development of your Cyberfort . . . so be on time! The upon judging, each forts will be ranked in descending order based upon the rubric/criteria established earlier here:

http://arch.latech.edu/willoughby/Cybercamp2010/index.html

BOE-Bot Challenge #2 Results

Here are the results from the autonomous maze navigation. This was a challenging project, but there were many successes! Very good work! Here is the point distribution for this challenge:

100 - North Desoto
90 - Ruston
80 - Southwood
70 - Airline
60 - Byrd
50 - West Monroe
40 - Parkway
20 - Minden
20 - ElDorado
20 - Benton

Good work teams!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Day 3 Video

Check out the video of Day 3!

Thursday Itinerary

8:00-9:00 Breakfast

9:00-9:30 Movie Discussion (Mixed Small Groups)

  • Group 1: GTM 123A
  • Group 2: Dean's Conference Room (1st Floor of GTM)
  • Group 3: GTM 223
  • Group 4: Bogard Hall 325
  • Group 5: Bogard Hall 327
  • Group 6: Bogard Hall 326*
*Please note that Group 6 has changed to Bogard Hall 326

9:30-11:00 Hands-On-Lab (Full Group) - Bogard Hall 304

  • Topic: Boe-Bot Activitiy 3 (explore challenges)

11:00-11:15 Break

11:15-12:00 Cyber Policy and Ethics (Full Group) - Bogard Hall 304

  • Theme: Cyber Operations

12:00-1:00 Lunch

1:00-1:30 Cyber Policy and Ethics Case Study (School Groups) - A Place of Your Choosing

1:30-1:40 Break

1:45-3:30 Hands-On-Lab (Full Group) - Bogard Hall 304

  • Topic: Manipulations and Exploitations I

3:30-5:30 Team Time (School Groups) - A Place of Your Choosing

5:30-6:30 Dinner

6:30-8:30 Movie Time (Full Group)- Wyly Tower Auditorium

9:00-11:00 Team Time (School Groups) - University Apartments

11:00 Lights out


The Net (1995)

Starring:

Sandra Bullock as Angela Bennett

Jeremy Northam as Jack Devlin

Dennis Miller as Dr. Alan Champion

Diane Baker as Mrs. Bennett

Watch for:

New technologies—what kinds of 1990s technology do we see and what is it used for? Pay attention to how computers have become integrated into everyday life.

The recurring theme of memory/forgetting—where do you see this and what does it mean?

Think about the significance of various names in the film: “Devlin,” “Marx,” “Champion”, “Cathedral”, “Gatekeeper,” etc.

Trivia:

The game that Angela is playing/debugging at the beginning of the movie is the Apple version Wolfenstein 3D, similar to the console editions of the game released on the Atari Jaguar and 3DO.

The Operating System Angela is using throughout the movie is Mac OS 7

Look for the unlikely message that appears on the airport “flight status” screen early in the movie.

Questions for discussion:

What is Angela’s specialization in her work with computers?

What do Angela’s chat buddies mean when they say that she’s “one of us”?

What’s the significance of the name of Angela’s employer, “Cathedral”?

Why is Angela so socially awkward and uncomfortable?

What is the larger goal of the “Praetorians” (the bad guys) and how are they trying to accomplish it?

How believable is it that our identity might be electronically altered or erased?

What can we do to prevent similar types of “identity theft”?

Survey 2

Each camper and teacher needs to complete the following survey by 11PM tonight by clicking on the appropriate following link!




Resources for the creative storyline presentation

Here is the .ppt of Professor Crook's presentation and the scoring sheet we will use in judging the presentations.

For those of you interested in Tech's drama camp, please see the following documents:




Creative storyline assignment

The storyline assignment asks each team to present a creative treatment that explains or provides a storyline for the final BOE-bot competition. As you know, the final competition will involve BOE-bots collecting marbles in an arena that looks like Tech's campus. Each team will have ten minutes each and may use any media or props. The presentations will take place on Saturday morning before the BOE-bot competition.

Cyberfort and Something to read for Thursday Afternoon

Cybercamp students, get ready create your CyberFort! You can find all the assignment handouts for Bill Willoughby here:

http://arch.latech.edu/willoughby/Cybercamp2010/index.html

The Cyberfort is worth 100 points in declining order less 10 points. Any models submitted late to Bill Willoughby will not be judged.

Your assigned computers should have a computer application called Google SketchUp 7 free version (http://sketchup.google.com/)

In class, we will use this SketchUp file as a basis for the design and modeling of your team's CyberFort at " Willoughby's 2010 Cybercamp Website! -- No frills . . . just old school HTML."

For Bill Willoughby's presentation tomorrow (Thursday @ 1:45PM):

As preparation for this presentation, please download and read this short essay (in Adobe Acrobat format) from William J. Mitchell's book e-topia, "Prologue: Urban Requiem" for tomorrow: and consider these these three questions: What "died" and therefore requires a requiem? What features of the "deceased" are these three mourners eulogizing? And last, will cities become outmoded as cyberspace expands and evolves?

William (Bill) Mitchell is Professor of Architecture and Media Arts and Sciences at MIT and former Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning (MIT). He currently directs the MIT Design Laboratory and is a member of the MIT Media Lab's Smart Cities Research Group.

Scoring Spreadsheet

For everyone wanting to keep track of the scores for all the teams. I have posted a viewable spreadsheet.

I will upload the scores from the Boe-Bot challenge later this afternoon.

Score Sheet

A note about the Treasure Hunt scores. There are 8 "code words/passwords" to be found. When everyone has determined the password, I will reveal it. Otherwise, I give it a name that should be meaningful to those who are at least near that stage.

-Christian

BOE-Bot Challenge #1 Results

Here are the results for the first BOE-Bot challenge!

We had one team finish the maze completely in only 18 seconds, Benton! Several other teams made it through over half of the maze, but didn't make the last few turns. There were several teams who made it to the same point and were rewarded the same number of points.

So here is the point distribution from BOE-Bot challenge #1:

100 - Benton
90 - West Monroe
80 - Airline
70 - N. Desoto
60 - Ruston
50 - ElDorado
25 - Minden
25 - Parkway
25 - Southwood
25 - Byrd

Thursday Morning Boe-Bot Challenge


The above diagram shows the dimensions of the maze used for the Thursday morning Boe-Bot challenge beginning at 9:30AM. The starting place is an undisclosed location and will be revealed by Dr. Crittenden at the beginning of the competition (so be prepared to start anywhere in the maze). Use the IR sensors to navigate through the maze and into the "garage" indicated by the 9" dimension section.


Cyber liberties assignment

In one of his most famous speeches made to a special session of Congress on July 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln uttered this now immortal remark that encapsulates well the tension between security and liberty:

It (The Civil War) presents the question, whether discontented individuals, too few in numbers to control administration, according to organic law, in any case, can always, upon the pretenses made in this case, or on any other pretenses, or arbitrarily, without any pretense, break up their Government, and thus practically put an end to free government upon the earth. It forces us to ask: "Is there, in all republics, this inherent and fatal weakness? Must a Government, of necessity, be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?"

Though Lincoln was clearly dealing here with problems specific to the Civil War, the issues he raises are as relevant today as they were then. Is it possible for a government, which has as its first duty the protection of life, to also protect the rights and freedoms of its people? Does the government on occasion have to sacrifice freedom and liberty for security? If so, what is to prevent it from abusing its power? Conversely, are there any rights that the government must hold inviolable, i.e., that under no circumstances may it infringe upon these rights? If so, what are these rights, and what makes them so important? Have these issues changed at all because of the proliferation of cybertechnology and the different environment in which we live? Be sure to use reliable sources from the web (based on the instruction provided by the Searchpath tutorial) to support your argument.

Each group must email a response of no more that 600 words in .rtf format to briane@latech.edu and jmhire@latech.edu by 8am on Thursday, June 4. Please remember to omit all identifying information from the essay and name the file a random four-digit number, e.g. 5432.rtf.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Day 1 & 2 Video

Click here to see the video for Day 1 & 2 of Cyber Discovery Camp 2010.

Day 1 - Treasure Hunt Scores

Just an update of the current standings in the cyber treasure hunt - as of Tuesday night at 9:45 PM.

Benton: 75 points
Ruston: 27 points
Airline: 20 points
W. Monroe: 15 points
Parkway: 10 points
Southwood: 9 points
North DeSoto: 8 points

Remember to check the AACCAA Blog for important updates (or hints) and to email any passwords you find that unlock files or decrypt messages. It is the only way we will know who "solved that puzzle first."

Good luck on all the challenges for tonight.

Wednesday Itinerary

8:00-9:00 Breakfast

9:00-9:30 Movie Discussion (Mixed Small Groups)

  • Group 1: GTM 123A
  • Group 2: Dean's Conference Room (1st Floor of GTM)
  • Group 3: GTM 223
  • Group 4: Bogard Hall 325
  • Group 5: Bogard Hall 327
  • Group 6: Bogard Hall 328

9:30-11:00 Hands-On-Lab (Full Group) - Bogard Hall 304

  • Topic: BOE-Bot Activity (whiskers, maze)

11:00-11:15 Break

11:15-12:00 Cyber Policy and Ethics (Full Group) - Bogard Hall 304

  • Theme: Cyber Liberties

12:00-1:00 Lunch

1:00-1:30 Cyber Policy and Ethics Case Study (School Groups) - A Place of Your Choosing

1:30-1:40 Break

1:45-3:30 Hands-On-Lab (Full Group) - Bogard Hall 304

  • Topic: Performing Arts
  • Topic: Cryptography II
  • Topic: Sketch Up Introduction

3:30-5:30 Team Time (School Groups) - A Place of Your Choosing

5:30-6:30 Dinner

6:30-8:30 Movie Time (Full Group) - Wyly Tower Auditorium

9:00-11:00 Team Time (School Groups) - University Apartments

11:00 Lights out


Searchpath tutorial

Please click on the Searchpath tutorial and complete "Starting Smart" and "Using the Web." We will include an evaluation of your proficiency in finding and using good and relevant information in determining rankings for the last three essays.

Sneakers (1992)

Starring:

Robert Redford as Martin “Marty” Bishop

Sidney Poitier as Donald Crease

David Strathairn as Erwin “Whistler” Emory

Dan Aykroyd as Mother

River Phoenix as Carl Arbegast

Mary McDonnell as Liz

Ben Kingsley as Cosmo

James Earl Jones as Bernard Abbott

Things to Look For:

Historical references—when and where is the film set? What historical events are mentioned?

References to “new” technologies? How does it compare to today’s cyber-technologies?

“Caper movie” conventions (“caper movies” involve intricate plots, schemes, heists, cons, etc.)


Trivia:

The movie deals with the impact of a factoring breakthrough on encryption, an obvious reference to the RSA algorithm, one of the most popular methods of encrypting any form of data in the world.

The computer in the room off of Cosmo's office in the PlayTronics building (the one that looks like a circular bench) is actually a Cray Y-MP, a multi-million dollar supercomputer that was one of the worlds fastest computers at the time the film was made.

James Earl Jones' character, Bernard Abbott, was named after Robert Abbott, a charismatic technical consultant for the film. Abbott designed the first time-sharing (multi-user) operating system for the Cray CDC-6600, the predecessor of the Y-MP seen in the film. He is also often referred to as the "Father of Information Security" by seasoned veterans of the computing industry.

Questions for discussion:

What’s the purpose of the opening sequence in 1969?

What is the role of the NSA (National Security Agency) as explained early in the film?

What’s the significance of the Scrabble game in the film?

What, exactly, is Dr. Janek’s “black box”?

What is Cosmo’s plan for “changing the world” and why does he need the “black box”?

Do you agree with Cosmo’s argument at the end of the film that “who controls the information” will determine the balance of power in the future? Why or why not?

Wednesday Morning Boe-Bot Challenge


Wednesday, June 2, at 9:30AM each team must be prepared to navigate their Boe-Bot through the maze using dead reckoning (starting at the O and ending at the X). The team that completes the maze the fastest (or the team that gets the furthest in the maze) will be the winner and will receive 100points. Second place will receive 90points; third place will receive 80points and so on until tenth place where that team will receive 10points. Teams are not allowed to touch their Boe-Bots while it is in the maze. Each team will, however, will be allowed 2 runs. After the first run, teams can go back to their tables and make adjustments that they see fit. The better of the two runs will be used for calculating sores. The dimensions of the maze are provided below.

Cyber Knowledge assignment

Imagine you read Berry's essay when it was first published in 1990, and Harper's asked you to write a response that would be published along with his reply. What would you say regarding both his argument in general, as well as his particular examples and issues? Is there a sense in which his "indictment" of technological innovation (especially the proliferation of computers) is correct? And if so, can you give any examples in your own life of technology that ends up doing more harm than good? Or, is Berry's analysis flawed, which leads him to see solutions as problems? If so, what is wrong in his chain of reasoning that produces this erroneous judgment? And can you think of any technological innovation that meets or exceeds his standards laid out on pg. 32?


Be sure in your response to anticipate his reply to your response, for as you have seen, he will be able to use your words, and hence your ideas, against you.

Each group must email a response of no more that 600 words in .rtf format to briane@latech.edu and jmhire@latech.edu by 8am on Wednesday, June 2. Please remember to omit all identifying information from the essay and name the file a random four-digit number, e.g. 5432.rtf. Remember this number! For grading criteria, please view our rubric here.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Tuesday Itinerary

8:00-9:00 Breakfast

*8:30 Survey 1 is Due

9:00-9:30 Movie Discussion (Mixed Small Groups)
  • Group 1: GTM 123A
  • Group 2: Dean's Conference Room (1st floor of GTM)
  • Group 3: GTM 223
  • Group 4: Bogard Hall 325
  • Group 5: Bogard Hall 327
  • Group 6: Bogard Hall 328
9:30-11:00 Hands-On-Lab (Full Group) - Bogard Hall 304
  • Topic: BOE-Bot Activity (Basics)
11:00-11:15 Break

11:15-12:00 Cyber Policy and Ethics (Full Group) - Bogard Hall 304
  • Theme: Cyber Knowledge
12:00-1:00 Lunch

1:00-1:30 Cyber Policy and Ethics Case Study (School Groups) - A Place of Your Choosing

1:30-1:40 Break

1:45-3:30 Hands-On-Lab (Full Group) - Bogard Hall 304
  • Topic: Cryptography I
3:30-5:30 Team Time (School Groups) - A Place of Your Choosing

5:30-6:30 Dinner

6:30-8:30 Movie Time (Full Group) - Wyly Tower Auditorium

9:00-11:00 Team Time (School Groups) - University Apartments

11:00 Lights out
Cyber Camp Survey 1

Please click the appropriate link and complete the survey by Tuesday, June 1 at 8:30AM.


Cyber Camp Surveys

Throughout the week we will be providing you with a series of short surveys. Each student and each teacher should fill out a survey whenever they are posted. There will be student versions as well as teacher versions of the surveys; please fill out the appropriate one. The links to the surveys will be posted on the blog when they become available (So check the blog daily for new surveys).

What is the login name? The first survey asks for background information about your age/gender/ethnicity then prompts you to make up a login name. Each subsequent survey will ask for your login name. This is a name that you can make up. We do ask that you incorporate your school initials somewhere in your login name (i.e. JaneRHS). You will use the same login name for each survey. The login name will help us track results from individual persons while keeping answers anonymous.

Why do we need to do the surveys? Your participation in the surveys are a great help in continuing the success of this camp. Data from the surveys help us showcase your overall abilities as schools as well as generate funding for future camps. The surveys also let us know what you think about the camp and how we can make it even better for future years.

Welcome to the 2010 Cyber Discovery Camp at Louisiana Tech University

Louisiana Tech University is proud to host its third annual Cyber Discovery Camp from May 31-June 5, 2010. We are excited to welcome outstanding students and teachers from ten schools across north Louisiana to what promises to be a fun, challenging, and rewarding academic experience. Check back here for updates, assignments, and other kinds of information necessary for the camp. Good luck to everyone!