COD Alum Participates in Cyber Camp, Hones Skills at UIC

College of DuPage graduate Josh Longmire is close to achieving his educational goals after transferring to the University of Illinois at Chicago to study computer science. While his focus is on his studies, he's also looking for opportunities outside the classroom and recently participated in the U.S. Cyber Challenge (USCC) through the National Center for Systems Security and Information Assurance.

"To me, participating in things like the Cyber Challenge is a really crucial part of my higher education," Longmire said. "These challenges allow industry leaders to see how potential candidates think and to see if they will be able to harden the security of their systems, or to respond to a security breach."

The hands-on experience also reinforces curriculum, he said, adding that faculty and instructors at COD inspired him to be vigilant and take initiative in learning and practicing new skills. The camp was far from easy, Longmire said, and required an invitation by competing in an earlier online exercise last spring, ultimately scoring among the top 30 in the state.

The USCC featured a week of training by computer security professionals and private cyber security company executives before teams were tasked with finding systems vulnerabilities, earning points along the way. Longmire's team, made up entirely of first-time competitors, finished third in the state.

"The challenge was quite difficult, especially since I was competing against in-industry IT and cyber security professionals who did this for a living as well as Computer Science graduate students and professors," he said. "It included a network setup with several computers with certain vulnerabilities that were then exploited for points. We used our laptops to carry out the actions an attacker would use against a live network. I'm quite proud to have been able to lead my team to score third in the state and hope that by continuing to be a self-learner and doing well in school I'll be able to have a successful career."

Computers were "love at first click," Longmire said. After getting a full-time job, he began taking classes in Computer and Internetworking Technologies and Computer Information Systems at COD to gain instantly applicable knowledge. He credits the College with providing the groundwork needed to gain an even deeper understanding of the Computer Science field.

"The range of classes at COD allowed me to study the mathematics and physics behind the operation and development of a computer while simultaneously taking hands-on courses to learn how to create new programs and set up computer networks," he said. "I feel especially confident moving forward into UIC's difficult classes in higher mathematics and software engineering.

"College of DuPage is an amazing place to begin your journey into a future career of your choice. If you are making a career change, are already dedicated to studying a specific discipline, or are trying to figure out what direction you would like to go in your higher education, I believe COD is a top-notch institution for students to accomplish their career goals."