Fall 2021 Virtual DeapSECURE Workshop
Published:
Workshop Date/Time: Friday, November 19, 2021, 1:00pm - 4:00pm
The DeapSECURE workshop series is a hands-on training on high-performance computational techniques emphasizing applications to cybersecurity research. We are excited to announce the Fall 2021 Virtual DeapSECURE Workshop covering the topics of Big Data and Machine Learning for cybersecurity. We will conduct the workshop online via Zoom. Come and join us, get your hands dirty while learning to use a supercomputer to address challenging cybersecurity research! Techniques taught in DeapSECURE workshops are rather general and transferable to other areas including science, engineering, finance, linguistics, etc.
This page contain additional details that you may want to know before joining this training:
- Who can join these workshops?
- When are the workshops?
- What is the format of the workshop?
- What will you learn in these workshops?
- What can you expect to gain out of the workshops?
- What are the prerequisites to succeed in this training program?
(The registration link is at the bottom. Please read on…)
Workshop Audience
This training program is aimed at (1) students with an interest in cutting-edge cybersecurity research, (2) those who need to handle and analyze large amounts of data and/or use machine learning techniques for their research projects. This workshop is open to any undergraduate/graduate student, faculty and staff from higher-education institutions across the Commonwealth of Virginia. However, we recommend that you be at least a junior and have a working knowledge in computer programming to apply for this training, due to the high level of technical and computing contents of the workshop. Please read the prerequisites of the training below.
Schedule
Sections and Topics
| Section | Topics |
|---|---|
| Section 1 | Introduction to DeapSECURE |
| Mobile Security Challenges | |
| The Sherlock Experiment & Dataset | |
| Overview of Big Data | |
| Review of Pandas Basic Capabilities | |
| Section 2 | Data Wrangling (hands-on) |
| Section 3 | Basics of Machine Learning |
| Machine Learning with scikit-learn (hands-on) | |
| Section 4 | Tuning Machine Learning Models for Best Performance |
There will be a short break between two successive sections.
Format
The workshop will be conducted online via Zoom. It consists of a mix of lectures / hands-on activities to introduce learners to basic concepts and practical skills in Big Data and Machine Learning. Materials will be introduced at an introductory level. Hands-on activities will be carried out in breakout sessions using Python and Jupyter notebooks. There will be teaching assistants to help the learners.
What Can I Expect out of This Training?
Expect to get your hands dirty to learn how to do cool stuff with supercomputers! While this workshop will not immediately make you an expert on big data and machine learning, you will have started your journey to use these techniques for your own goals—whether a cybersecurity project, or science research that require the use of machine learning. You will be able to learn more on your own after attending the workshop. In the near future we will set up an online learning community for all the present and past participants of the training program, so you can continue learning together.
What this training is NOT about: DeapSECURE is not a training on fundamentals of cybersecurity, cybersecurity operations (penetration test, intrusion detection, security scanning, etc.), cybersecurity threat analysis, cyber forensics, etc.
Prerequisites on Computing Skills
Basic skill of writing computer programs is required to participate in this training. You need to have some experience of building simple computer programs—about 100 lines of code or less—preferably from scratch. The specific language matters less; it is the programming skill that matters. Popular languages such as C, C++, Fortran, Python, Matlab, Ruby, would be fine.
Experience with command-line interface would be highly beneficial, although not required to apply. Skills on UNIX shell (e.g. bash) can be very helpful.
The hands-on activities in the workshop primarily use the Python programming language, pandas, and scikit-learn. Please see our pointers to several crash courses on Python.
In this workshop, we do not assume or require knowledge in cybersecurity other than basic general knowledge that most Internet and computer users typically know.
Learning Resources on Pandas Now Available!
Due to the limited amount of time for the workshop, we will dive straight into data wrangling with pandas in our workshop. While not required, we strongly recommend that you do the hands-on learning on pandas using the Jupyter notebooks posted on our Resources from 2020 Workshop Series. Please go through “Session 1” and “Session 2” of the notebooks. You can download and install Anaconda Individual Edition on your laptop or desktop computer and get a head-start learning!
Rules & Requirements
This is a hands-on training. You are expected to use your laptop/computer to connect to and perform exercises on ODU’s Wahab supercomputer.
Your participation in the workshops is mandatory. Your participation is strongly encouraged, because we will be challenged to build our own solution to “real-world” problems!
A certificate of completion will be given to every participant who attend five or more workshops.
Ok, I’m In! How Do I Sign Up for the Workshops?
To register for the DeapSECURE Workshop, please:
Register Here: https://odu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bK2Dc0ggtstnDM2
Registration deadline: November 12, 2021
Why Cybersecurity?
DeapSECURE is targeted to teach computational skills to people with interest in cybersecurity, but it is also useful for those who want to learn about HPC, big data and machine learning in a general way. Why the emphasis on cybersecurity, you may ask? Two reasons:
There is a great need to infuse knowledge about and experience in advanced computational techniques into the new educational field of “cybersecurity”. Introducing these techniques in the context familiar to cybersecurity students is a very effective way to let them connect them to their very subject of concern.
As the world is now connected by means of computer technologies, cybersecurity has become everyone’s business. Even though you may not major in cybersecurity (or anything close to it), you still own technology devices which must be kept secure. Hacking, phishing, spam, malware is an unfortunate fact in the Internet. While DeapSECURE is not an education program on cybersecurity per se, it will expose you to general awareness of current issues in cybersecurity research.
IMPORTANT: Seating is limited to TWENTY.
Due to limited space, we perform selection on the workshop participants. You will be notified prior to the workshop start whether you are accepted into the training program. By participating, you commit to attend the online workshop.
Acknowledgements
This training project is funded by the National Science Foundation through OAC CyberTraining grant #1829771.