News and Events

Thursday, April 17, 2008

CISE Designated as National CAE/IAE

SPSU CISE (Center for Information Security Education) has been designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education (CAE/IAE) for academic years 2008-2013 by NSA and DHS. More information about CAE/IAE is available at http://www.nsa.gov/ia/academia/caeiae.cfm.

President Lisa Rossbacher, Governor Purdue, GA Congress Members will soon receive an official letters of notification about this designation.

CAE/IAE is a formal recognition from the U.S. government, as well as opportunities for prestige and publicity, for our role in securing nation's information systems. Now SPSU students are eligible to apply for scholarships and grants through the Department of Defense Information Assurance Scholarship Program and the Federal Cyber Service Scholarship for Service Program (SFS).

Please refer to http://cise.spsu.edu/ for more information about research and scholarship opportunities.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

New MSIT Curriculum Approved

SPSU's Graduate Program Committee recently approved a significant revision of our Master's program in Information Technology. The MSIT now explicitly aims to prepare its graduates for senior technical management positions and/or CIO positions a few years after graduation, and was revised to equip its graduating students with the skills they need to grow into these positions. The program now consists of a core of 5 required courses (IT Design Studio, Information Security Concepts and Administration, IT Service Delivery, IT Systems Acquisition and Integration, and IT Policy, Strategy and Governance) and one advanced technical elective in either networking, databases, web development or information security. Students are also required to complete an additional 6 electives, at least some of which may be drawn from other departments. All of the core courses will be delivered both face-to-face, in a hybrid fashion and fully online. Please refer to http://it.spsu.edu/Curriculum/MSIT/MSIT_2008-2009.html for more information.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

IT Students Won IBM Master the Mainframe Contest

This fall semester, IBM is conducting the second Master the Mainframe Contest for college and university students across the U.S. and Canada. This contest is designed to familiarize students with the basic skills and concepts that will make them more competitive in obtaining high-paying jobs and internships in the enterprise computing industry. The contest is divided into three parts: Part 1: Breaking the ice, Part 2: Practical experience, and Part 3: Real-world challenge. More information is available at: http://www-304.ibm.com/jct09002c/university/students/contests/mainframecontest2007.html.

As of November 20, 2007, the following students received awards by IBM as Part 1 winners:

Josh Lawton
Brian Banks
Felicia Rosemond
Ashwini Rege
Michael Curry
Daniel Perry
Chad McDonald
Kyle Ingalsbe
Mike Sulpy

Daniel Perry, BSIT senior, has been awarded by IBM as Part 2 winner.

Congratulations to all these students! Last year, seven IT students won the first phase awards.

Friday, November 16, 2007

2007 SPISA Network Security Competition

The IT Department organized 2007 SPISA Network Security Competition on Saturday, November 10, 2007. The competition focused on the operational aspect of managing and protecting an existing network infrastructure. Student teams were scored based on their ability to detect and respond to outside threats, maintain availability of existing services such as web and database servers, and balance security needs against business needs. The competition involved four main teams: The Academic teams consisted of SPSU students (three students in each team) who attempted to secure a Windows 2003 Active Directory server, a web server, a database server, and a Windows XP client. The Red team was composed of security professionals who tried to attack and exploit the computers of the Academic teams. The White team consisted of judges who kept score during the competition. The Gold team was in charge of facilitating all of the competitors and overseeing the competition.

The competition started at 11:00am and ended at 5pm. The top five winning teams were:

First Place – Team Alpha Squad 7: Brent Page, Michael Galyon, Alex Groden
Second Place – Team NULL: Daniel Perry, Ted Wood, Benjamin V. Yampolsky
Third Place – Team Ninjas: Sandra Hofmann, Rob Little, Yamin Wu
Fourth Place – Team Paladin: Ilyas Takci, Jaime Barrios, Andrew Ward
Fifth Place – Team Warcraft: Xin Lu, Michael Altfield, Min Xia

The judging was based on many different aspects of the competition, with the emphasis being server uptime and website functionality. Other factors went into judging as well, such as superfluous services or potentially malicious files, as well as adding in additional points for protective measures taken.

Gold Team: Ray Walker, Eric John, Len Bledsoe, Daniel Braine, Korey Kolberg, Hugh L Webster, Marilee McClure.

White Team: Andy Wang, Svetlana Peltsverger, Susan Vande Ven, Chih-Cheng Lien, Norris Walker, Ben Burgis, Fengwei Zhang, Yanyan Jin.

We thank the Gold Team and White Team members for their great effort in making this competition a great success. Some pictures about this competition are available at http://it.spsu.edu/spisa/spisa.shtml.

SPISA (Southern Polytechnic Information Security Association) is a student organization established for the purpose of advancing information security knowledge and skills. The current President of SPISA is Eric John, and the faculty advisor is Dr. Andy Wang. More information about SPISA is available at http://it.spsu.edu/spisa/spisa.shtml. http://it.spsu.edu/spisa/spisa.shtml.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Network Security Competition

The Department of Information Technology is sponsoring the Network Security Competition organized by SPISA (Southern Poly Information Security Association) on Saturday, November 10, 2007. The winning team will be sent to the Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (SCCDC 2008) next March, and the winning team of SCCDC 2008 will be sent to the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NCCDC 2008) later in 2008. This is different from the "Catch the Flag" kind of competition in that student teams are defending their computers rather than trying to hack others' computers. In the coming competition, students will have two servers and one client to work with. A professional pen-testing team will try to hack into student's systems and student teams have to keep your servers up and running for 3 hours during the competition. More information is available in the Network Security Competition Team Packet v1.4.

Students can register by sending an email to it@spsu.edu or spisaadmin@gmail.com. If you need help in organizing a team, please contact the above emails for help.

Please read or download the Network Security Competition Team Packet v1.4 here.

Friday, May 18, 2007

CISSP Training Workshop

The IT Department and Center for Information Security Education (CISE), in partnership with the Metro Atlanta Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) chapter, is hosting a 12-week CISSP training workshop this summer. The workshop will be facilitated by the Metro Atlanta ISSA Director of Training, with assistance from CISSP)certified ISSA members, who possess in-depth knowledge within specific (ISC)2 CISSP Common Body of Knowledge (CBK) domains.

The workshop kicked off this evening in J-161. More than 50 people attended the first class today. The workshop is targeting CISSP exam dates in June (June 24, 2007) and September (Sept. 15, 2007) in Atlanta.

Thursday, May 3, 2007

CSE Industry Open House

The CSE Industry Open House today attracted a large crowd to the Student Center Ballroom from 4:00pm to 7:00pm. This was a great opportunity for computing related industries to network with our students and faculty, view projects and research our students are working on, and explore further collaborations with faculty and students. It was also a good opportunity for our students to meet with industry representatives, learn more about current internship and job opportunities, and explore future careers in IT/CS/SWE disciplines.

There were over 50 students and faculty members from CSE and 13 representatives from industry participated in the open house today. It was a great success considering we had only 2 weeks planning time for the event. All the feedbacks from both industry and our students were very positive, and we will make this kind of industry open house a regular, annual event in the future. Below is a few pictures taken from the event:

Friday, April 20, 2007

Frank Sqrow receives 2007 Outstanding Scholarship Award

The information Technology Department's award for outstanding scholarship for 2007 went to Frank Sqrow. Sqrow received the BSEE degree from Ohio State University in 1973 and came to SPSU in 2002 to earn the Master of Science degree in information technology. He recently completed the degree with a 4.0 grade point average while working full time and taking care of a family. The Outstanding Scholarship award consists of a plaque and check sponsored by IntelliScience Corporation.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Chastity Lowery is recipient of 2007 Outstanding Service Award

The information Technology Department's award for outstanding service for 2007 went to Chastity Lowery. She has attended nearly every undergraduate open house for the last five years, has been a judge at the Georgia BEST robotics contest for the past two years, and has worked with the Girl Scouts' Science Day at SPSU. She also served as a tutor while an undergraduate at SPSU. Lowery was the President's Scholar and a University System of Georgia Scholar when she received the BS degree in computer science from SPSU in 2002. She has returned to SPSU in the graduate certificate in IT program. The Outstanding Service award consists of a plaque and check sponsored by IntelliScience Corporation.

Friday, April 13, 2007

IT Professor Promoting Podcasting on Campus

Professor Bob Brown has been using podcasting in his IT classes since 2006 fall semester. He presented a demonstration of podcasting at the Center for Teaching Excellence on January 31. The presentation focused on audio-only podcasts hosted on the University System of Georgia podcasting server. In addition to demonstrating the technology, Bob's presentation covered some of the issues that could arise when deciding to supply material through podcasts. The presentation was repeated March 13 and April 10 in the CTE and on April 17 for the PSLSAMP scholars.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

IT Professor Presented at Governor's Teaching Fellows Symposium

Prof. Rich Halstead-Nussloch was invited to speak at Governor's Teaching Fellows Symposium, Wednesday, April 4th through Friday, April 6th, 2007 in Athens, Georgia. His presentation was entitled "Campus Continuous Improvement Initiative".

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

SPSU Team Placed The Fource Place in SECCDC

Congratulations to the following students from SPISA (Southern Polytechnic Information Security Association), who placed the four place in the second Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (SECCDC 2007):

Yuta Kitabayashi, Eric John, Korey Kolberg, Mason Cleveland, Daniel Braine, Lee Webster, Ali Khodada

The SECCDC 2007 was held this year in University of North Carolina at Charlotte from March 9 to March 11, 2007. There were nine teams participated in this regional competition: University of Louisville, UNC Charlotte, Mississippi State University, Southern Polytechnic State University, Mercer University, University of South Carolina, UNC Wilmington, Kennesaw State University, and South Florida University.

More information about this competition is available at http://it.spsu.edu/CISE/events.shtml.

Friday, March 23, 2007

IT Professor Presenting Webcast for USG

Professor Bob Brown presented a University System of Georgia webcast on preventing and detecting plagiarism on March 22. The emphasis was on preventing plagiarism through design of assignments, but also included information on the application of plagiarism detection software as a deterrent. Faculty and staff from 19 University System schools and from the Board of Regents attended the webcast.

Friday, March 16, 2007

"GET IT TOGETHER" Spring Semester Social Event

The IT Department had a successful "GET IT Together" social event this Wednesday and Thursday, from 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm in J-381. There were about 50 students showed up at the event, sharing their successful stories with peers and faculty, and enjoying pizza and food items prepared by IT faculty and staff.

Friday, February 9, 2007

ASQ Workshop for Baldridge Self-Assessment in Higher Education

Prof. Rich Halstead-Nussloch was invited to participate in the ASQ (American Society for Quality) sponsored workshop covering Baldrige Self-Assessment for Higher Education, from February 5th to February 6th, 2007 in Atlanta.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Customer Service Champions

Prof. Rich Halstead-Nussloch was invited to facilitate and present at the USG Customer Service Campus Champions Quarterly Meeting on January 10th, 2007 at Macon State College, Macon, GA.

Monday, October 23, 2006

MSIT Student Won Student Paper Award

At the ACM SIGITE (Special Interests Group in IT Education) 2006 conference from October 18 to 21 in Minneapolis, Mr. Fred Gutierrez, an MSIT student, won the Student Paper Award for his paper entitled "Stingray: A Hands-on Approach to Learning Information Security", which is based on his thesis work on information security research.

Friday, October 20, 2006

Students Won IBM Master the Mainframe Contest Phase I Awards

IBM is running the Master the Mainframe Contest for college and university students across the U.S. and Canada from October 2, 2006 to December 28, 2006. There are three phases of this contest: Phase I: Breaking the Ice; Phase II: Practical Experience; Phase III: Real-world Challenge. Seventeen students from our school participated in this competition. As of today, seven students (listed below) have successfully completed this phase and received Phase I awards: Custom Master the Mainframe T-shirts.

Chris Christian
Steve Ward
Michael McKoy
Mike Sulpy
Nicolas Padovani
Scott Harman
Alexander Strange

According to IBM, 400 students will be selected as the Phase I winners among college and university students across the U.S. and Canada. More information about this contest is available at http://www-304.ibm.com/jct09002c/university/students/contests/mainframecontest2006.html.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Google Gadget Competition for University Students

Google has announced a competition aimed at university students to create new Google Gadgets. From the article, "If you're a student with an email address ending in .edu, the Google Gadget Awards is your chance to win a Google programming competition – even if you're not a programming ninja. If you've ever taken a web design class, you can probably create a gadget in a few minutes – no need to download anything or even oown hosting space. Once you've submitted your gadget, people can add it to their Google homepage with a few mouse clicks."

You'll find more details at http://www.google.com/intl/en/events/gadgetawards/index.html.

Tuesday, August 8, 2006

Welcome New Faculty

The Department of Information Technology is pleased to welcome Dr. Svetlana Peltsverger as an Assistant Professor of Information Technology at Southern Polytechnic State University. Dr. Peltsverger holds BS and MS degrees in Computer Science from Chelyabinsk Polytechnic Institute (Russia), and a Ph. D. in Computer Science from the Institute of System Analysis, Russian Academy of Sciences. Prior to coming to SPSU she was an assistant professor at University of North Carolina at Asheville. Dr. Peltsverger’s primary research and teaching interests include: computational geometry, networking, distributed computing, and databases. Dr. Peltsverger is a member of Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). She is currently building her web page at http://cse.spsu.edu/speltsve/.

Welcome, Dr. Peltsverger!

Thursday, June 15, 2006

CNSS Certification for SPSU

Dr. Andy Ju An Wang is receiveing the CNSS certificate on stage, representing SPSU, at the 2006 CNSS IA Courseware Evaluation (IACE) Awards Ceremony at Washington, DC, on June 5th, 2006.

Dr. Linton Wells II presented the award. Dr. Wells II serves as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DoD). Also onstage are: Mr. Dick Schaeffer, Director for Information Assurance at NSA; Ms. Nancy Defrancesco, Chair of the CNSS Subcommittee on Telecommunications Security; and Mr. Eustace King, Chair of the CNSS Subcommittee on Information Systems Security.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Katie DeVore Received IT Department Outstanding Service Award

Katie Suzanne DeVore of Cobb County is the first recipient of the Outstanding Service Award presented by the Information Technology Department, School of computing and Software Engineering, Southern Polytechnic State University in recognition of her contributions to SPSU as a volunteer while she was a student. DeVore earned the Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology from SPSU in 2005. She received the award, a plaque and a check from IntelliScience Corporation, at the annual Awards Day ceremony at SPSU today.

While at SPSU, DeVore volunteered for every Girl Scouts Day of Science event, served as a greeter and guide at every undergraduate open house for over two years, and served two terms as secretary of the SPSU student chapter of the Association of Information Technology Professionals. DeVore has also volunteered for Habitat for Humanity and the 4H Clubs in the recent past. “I do volunteer work because I love to be around people and help out in any way possible,” said DeVore.

DeVore is a network technician for Computer Process Controls division of Emerson Electric in Kennesaw.

The Outstanding Service Award is sponsored by IntelliScience Corporation. IntelliScience is devoted to improving the quality of life and the safety of the global community, and is happy to be able to assist Southern Polytechnic State University in recognizing students who have donated their time and efforts for the benefit of the community at large.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Jeff Johnson Received IT Department Outstanding Academic Award

Jeff Johnson received the Outstanding Academic Award today at the SPSU Student Award Ceremony at the Student Center.

Mr. Johnson started his BSIT study at SPSU in 2004, and he will receive his Bachelor's degree on May 6, 2006 with a GPA 3.94. Before coming to SPSU, Jeff studied in Georgia State University. He will become a SPSU MSIT student starting from this summer.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

New Graduate Certificate in Business Continuity

Business continuity management and contingency planning are essential, unavoidable and high-priority tasks for IT professionals. However, the creation of a sound continuity and contingency plan is a complex undertaking, involving a number of stages and discrete activities. For instance, it is necessary to understand the underlying risks and the potential impacts of disaster at the initial stage of planning. They are the building blocks upon which sensible business continuity or disaster recovery plans should be built. Then the plan itself must be created, validated and exercised. In the maintenance and testing stages, the IT professionals have to ensure that the plan remains current and that critical personnel remain practiced for an actual event.

The Graduate Certificate in Business Continuity program is designed to cover all these stages and to introduce some of the supporting tools. Students in this program will find software to assist with business impact analysis and risk analysis, create and maintain the plan itself, as well as audit, exercise and implement the plan.

Students graduating with this program will have a strong background in fundamental principles and applications of business continuity, whether they are entirely new to business continuity management, as well as hands-on experience with supporting tools commonly used in business continuity management.

Candidates must complete the four courses in the following table for a total of 12 credit hours.

Required Courses 12 Hours
IT	6553	Business Continuity Risk Assessment	3
IT	6823	Information security concepts and Administration	3
IT	6563	Business Continuity Planning	3
IT	6573	Business Continuity Implementation	3

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

SPSU Information Security Courses Certified

The information security courses offered by SPSU have been certified as a 100% mapping to the Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS) National Standards 4011 and 4012. The Information Assurance Courseware Evaluation (IACE) Review Committee under the CNSS recently evaluated SPSU’s information security courseware application. The IACE Review Committee has validated that the SPSU courseware meets all of the elements of the CNSS National Training Standards for:

Information Systems Security (INFOSEC) Professionals, NSTISSI-4011, and

Senior Systems Managers, CNSSI-4012.

Dr. Andy Ju An Wang, Chair of the Information Technology Department and Director of the Center for Information Security Education, will represent SPSU to receive recognition and an official certificate during the June 2006 CNSS Awards Ceremony, which will be held at the 10th Colloquium for Information Systems (CISSE) in Washington DC. This certificate, signed by the CNSS Chair, will be valid through June 2009. More information about SPSU Center for Information Security Education (CISE) is available at http://it.spsu.edu/CISE.

Monday, March 13, 2006

SPSU Team Won The Third Place Award in SECCDC

Congratulations to the following CSE students as the third place winning team in the first Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (SECCDC):

Dave Bachtel, Ryan Cambell, Fred Gutierrez, Yuta Kitabayashi, Mason Cleaveland, Chris Colyar, and Eric John.

The SECCDC was a three-day event in KSU on March 10-12, 2006. Seven teams participated in this competition: Chattahoochee Technical College, Kennesaw State University, Southern Polytechnic State University, University of Alabama, Birmingham, University of Louisville, Kentucky, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and University of South Florida. The first place and second place winners were University of North Carolina (Charlotte) and University of South Florida, respectively.

More information about this competition and some photos are available at http://it.spsu.edu/CISE/events.shtml.

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Information Security Career Day

The Metro Atlanta Chapter of the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) will organize an "Information Security Career Day" on Saturday February 25th, 2006, at Holiday Inn Select. More information is available at: http://it.spsu.edu/CISE/events.shtml.

Thursday, February 9, 2006

New Graduate Certificate in Information Security and Assurance

Information security and assurance is one of the fastest-growing areas in information technology and information management. It is the foundation of enterprise decision-making and reliable business processes. This program prepares students for a variety of positions such as information security officer, security manager, operational manager, systems and network manager, legal professional, risk manager, and information professional. Information security and assurance is especially important in banking and finance, public health, health care, and other highly-regulated industries. Those who complete the program successfully will be prepared in security awareness, incident response to system compromise, defense strategies, configuration management, and legal issues.

The Information Security and Assurance (ISA) Graduate Certificate Program is designed for IT professionals who have a bachelor's degree and have undertaken the Graduate Transition Certificate in Information Technology (or the equivalent through other coursework) to advance their knowledge in the field of information security and assurance.

Students graduating with this program will have a strong background in fundamental principles and applications of computer security and information assurance, as well as hands-on experience with security tools commonly used in industry.

Candidates must complete the three core courses in Information Security and Assurance and one elective course for a total of 12 credits.

Required Courses 9 Hours
IT	6823	Information security concepts and Administration	3
IT	6843	Ethical Hacking: Network Security and Penetration Testing	3
IT	6863	Database Security and Auditing	3
Elective Courses (choose 1 from the following list) 3 Hours
IT	6833	Wireless Security	3
IT	6853	Computer Forensics	3
IT	6973	Information Security Seminar	3

Saturday, February 11, 2006

2006 STEM Education Training Workshop

If you are a pre-college STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) teacher, school counselor, or supervisor, or if you are just interested in pursuing a STEM education, this workshop will benefit you!

Keep your job skills current
Network with STEM teachers and experts
Find answers to your technology challenges
Be enlightened, inspired, and entertained
Follow up with web-based training and earn one PLU

Visit the STEM Workshop page for more information or to register.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Top 3 Winning Teams in SPSU Information Security Challenge 2006 are:

Team Tiger: Dave Bachtel, Fred Guitierrez, C. J. Shiflett
Team Team_Eagle: Ryan M. Campbell
Team Untitled01: Lee Webster, Yuta Kitabayashi, Mason Cleaveland

Some photos were posted at this page, thanks going to Josh Zhang for taking these pictures.

Wednesday January 11, 2006

SPSU Information Security Challenge 2006:

When: 1pm -- 3pm, Wednesday January 11, 2006.
Where: J-211, Information Security Lab.
Who: Full-time SPSU students, undergraduate and graduate students.
What: Three students work in one team, performing a penetration testing (red team) and a cyber defensing competition (blue team). The network and server configuration will be sent to each team after December 8, 2005.
Registration Deadline: Thursday December 8, 2005.
Awards: Top 3 teams will receive certifications, gifts, and will be sent to Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (March 10-12, 2006).
Judges and Organization Committee: Prof. Bob Brown, Dr. Abdullah Faruque, Prof. Phillip Feibish, Dr. Orlando Karam, Mr. Micah Rowland, Mr. Ray Walker, and Dr. Andy Wang (Chair).

To register, please send email to Dr. Andy Wang (jwang@spsu.edu) with your team name and team members.

For more information about this competition, please visit http://it.spsu.edu/CISE/news.shtml.

Tuesday, November 8, 2005

Career Opportunities

When: Tuesday November 8, 2005

Where: Cobb Galleria Center

What: Employers are looking to hire YOU!

Don't miss the opportunity to be employed! Please visit http://home.lagrange.edu/gcc for a list of registering employers.

Thursday, October27, 2005

PlayMotion! Field Trip

A group of IT students visited PlayMotion!, a fast-growing IT company with a vision that "play is the poetry of the human being." Their interactive entertainment products were demonstrated and we are looking forward to a further collaboration between the Department of Information Technology and PlayMotion! next spring.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Mid-Term Get-Together

Tuesday October 11th, 2005, 5-6pm
Wednesday October 12th, 2005, noon - 1pm

Students are cordially invited to the Mid-Term Get-Together Student Reception on Tuesday October 11th, 5-6pm, and Wednesday October 12th, noon - 1pm, in the 2nd floor atrium area near J201 and J201L. Refreshments will be provided. These mid-term mix and mingle events are campus-wide events but organized by individual schools as an outreach to SPSU students. The BOR (USG Board of Regents) will be visiting the SPSU campus during these two days as well.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

New Concentration in BSIT Program

Information Security and Assurance Concentration

(Approved by IT faculty on September 20, 2005)

Students graduating with this concentration (track) will have a strong background in fundamental principles and applications of computer security and information assurance, as well as hands-on experience with security tools commonly used in industry.

In order to have an Information Security and Assurance concentration, students should choose 3 courses from the following courses:

IT 4823 Information Security Administration (required)
IT 4843 Ethical Hacking
IT 4833 Wireless Security
IT 4853 Computer Forensics

Contact Information:

Southern Polytechnic State University
Information Technology Degrees Department
1100 South Marietta Parkway
Marietta, GA 30060
Phone: 678-915-4292
Department Chair: jwang@spsu.edu
Administrative Assistant: Ms. Marilee McClure mmcclure@spsu.edu
Academic Advisor: Mrs. Beth Haynie ehaynie@spsu.edu