Active Learning in Microelectronics and Cybersecurity for Our Community
Opportunities for Students, Parents, and Teachers
The University of Delaware’s Center for Cybersecurity, Assurance, & Privacy (CCAP) is launching a new initiative funded by the NSF CyberCorps grant to engage students, young adults, and families in microelectronics and cybersecurity through hands-on learning. Starting this spring, we will host Microelectronics Week and five Community Science Days on Saturdays (at no cost), each exploring themes in engineering, technology, and microelectronics. These events will take place at the University of Delaware’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, featuring state-of-the-art facilities like the iSuite Maker Space and Cyber Range.
In addition to these informal experiences, we’re offering a week-long program to Delaware teachers to explore microelectronics through hands-on projects, lectures, and collaboration. It equips educators with the knowledge and tools to create instructional materials, such as microelectronic kits, for classroom integration. Participants will work with expert faculty and advanced facilities to deepen their understanding of this crucial field. Funded by the CHIPS and Science Act, the program includes a $2K stipend for 20 teachers, supporting their role in enhancing STEM education.
Microelectronics Week (for Students)
(July 28 – August 1, 2025)
- Day 1: Introduction to Microelectronics
- Day 2: Fundamental Electronic Components
- Day 3: Voltage Regulation and MOSFETs
- Day 4: Microcontrollers and Microprocessors
- Day 5: Cyberphysical Systems
Microelectronics Community Science Days (for Students and their Parents/Guardians)
(Select Saturdays between March 22 – May 10, 2025)
We will offer 5 community science days on Saturdays and engage 12 high school students/young adults (plus one adult family member for each). Each day will include about 3 hours of educational activities and regular breaks.
- March 22: Motor Day
- April 5: Nano Drone Day
- April 26: MEMS Day
- May 3: Robot Vision Day
- May 10: Self-Driving Car Day
Microelectronics Security Competition (for Students)
The hardware security competition focuses on side channels. The competition will have 2 tracks: (a) basic side-channel attacks to embedded devices using ChipWhisperer (5 teams of college students) and (b) basic side-channel attacks to cyberphysical systems (5 teams of high school students). Each team consists of up to four participants and will receive a chipwhisperer nano or an arduino-based PCB developed by UD. The competition will last 5 weeks during Summer 2025 (one new challenge will be released each week for each track). Dates to be determined.
Microelectronics Week for High School Teachers
(July 14 – July 18, 2025)
Microelectronics Week for Teachers offers Delaware teachers a unique, week-long opportunity to explore microelectronics through hands-on projects, lectures, and collaboration. It equips educators with the knowledge and tools to create instructional materials, such as microelectronic kits, for classroom integration. Participants will work with expert faculty and advanced facilities to deepen their understanding of this crucial field. Funded by the CHIPS and Science Act, the program includes a $2K stipend for 20 teachers, supporting their role in enhancing STEM education.
- Day 1: The theme of the day is an introduction to microelectronics.
- Day 2: The second day’s theme is microelectronic circuits to drive electric motors.
- Day 3: Building on the training of the first two days, day three will focus on Microcontrollers.
- Day 4: The focus will be on learning how MEMS systems work, emphasizing sensors.
- Day 5: The last day will focus on the security of microelectronics, emphasizing side channels.
Space is limited, apply Today!
Feel free to download the brochure which highlights all of these programs.
Questions regarding our Spring and Summer Outreach programs? Contact the University of Delaware’s Center for Cybersecurity, Assurance and Privacy, or Email: cybersecurity-info@udel.edu
SECURE DELAWARE CONFERENCE
Join us for a full day of cybersecurity learning, meet industry vendors, and network with leading cybersecurity professionals.
October 29 | 8am – 5pm
Clayton Hall
University of Delaware
Newark, Delaware
Join us at one of our
WEDNESDAY TECHFORUMS
October 9 | 12:30 – 1:45 pm
Brian Canfield
Delaware DoJ
132 iSuite, Evans Hall
October 23 | 12:30 – 1:45 pm
Dylan Martin & Jason Reynolds
University of Delaware
132 iSuite, Evans Hall
October 23 | 12:30 – 1:45 pm
Tom Powers
University of Delaware
132 iSuite, Evans Hall
UD CYBERSECURITY MONTH EVENTS
2024
November 8 | 12pm (36hours)
CTF COMPETITION
University of Delaware to host 4th Annual
Capture the Flag Competition.
Join us to learn about state-of-the-art security technologies and exciting ethical hacking topics.
It’s Time! Capture The Flag (CTF) competition. Be sure to check out sponsorship opportunities.
What is CTF?
- Capture the Flag (CTF) is a special kind of information security competitions. There are three common types of CTFs: Jeopardy, Attack-Defence and mixed.
- Jeopardy-style CTFs has a couple of questions (tasks) in range of categories. For example, Web, Forensic, Crypto, Binary or something else. Team can gain some points for every solved task. More points for more complicated tasks usually. The next task in chain can be opened only after some team solve previous task. Then the game time is over sum of points shows you a CTF winer. Famous example of such CTF is Defcon CTF quals.
- Well, attack-defense is another interesting kind of competitions. Here every team has own network(or only one host) with vulnerable services. Your team has time for patching your services and developing exploits usually. So, then organizers connects participants of competition and the wargame starts! You should protect own services for defense points and hack opponents for attack points. Historically this is a first type of CTFs, everybody knows about DEF CON CTF – something like a World Cup of all other competitions.
- Mixed competitions may vary possible formats. It may be something like wargame with special time for task-based elements (e.g. UCSB iCTF).
- CTF games often touch on many other aspects of information security: cryptography, stego, binary analysis, reverse engineering, mobile security and others. Good teams generally have strong skills and experience in all these issues.
CONTACT INFO
Kenneth Barner and Nektarios Tsoutsos
cybersecurity-info@udel.edu
102 Evans Hall
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716
(302) 831-6937
W: ccap.udel.edu
The White House Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) is pleased to host the Women in Cyber webinar on Saturday, March 23 at 9:00AM-1:00PM EST.
In celebration of Women’s History Month, this fully virtual event aims to empower the next generation of women in cyber by sharing White House leadership remarks and panel discussions of women in cyber across government, industry, academia, and non-profit domains.
Registration is limited, so we encourage attendees to register promptly following the RSVP link in the invitation.
2023
It’s Time! Capture The Flag (CTF) competition. Be sure to check out sponsorship opportunities.
Register Here: http://bluehens.ctfd.io/
What is CTF?
- Capture the Flag (CTF) is a special kind of information security competitions. There are three common types of CTFs: Jeopardy, Attack-Defence and mixed.
- Jeopardy-style CTFs has a couple of questions (tasks) in range of categories. For example, Web, Forensic, Crypto, Binary or something else. Team can gain some points for every solved task. More points for more complicated tasks usually. The next task in chain can be opened only after some team solve previous task. Then the game time is over sum of points shows you a CTF winer. Famous example of such CTF is Defcon CTF quals.
- Well, attack-defense is another interesting kind of competitions. Here every team has own network(or only one host) with vulnerable services. Your team has time for patching your services and developing exploits usually. So, then organizers connects participants of competition and the wargame starts! You should protect own services for defense points and hack opponents for attack points. Historically this is a first type of CTFs, everybody knows about DEF CON CTF – something like a World Cup of all other competitions.
- Mixed competitions may vary possible formats. It may be something like wargame with special time for task-based elements (e.g. UCSB iCTF).
- CTF games often touch on many other aspects of information security: cryptography, stego, binary analysis, reverse engineering, mobile security and others. Good teams generally have strong skills and experience in all these issues.
Register Here
CONTACT INFO
Kenneth Barner and Nektarios Tsoutsos
cybersecurity-info@udel.edu
102 Evans Hall
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716
(302) 831-6937
W: ccap.udel.edu
Gold Sponsor:
Bronze Sponsor:
