YPSILANTI – In July, Eastern Michigan University�??s Information Assurance program and the Institute for Geospatial Studies will host 60 Detroit High School youth in a National Science Foundation ITEST Grant Program that will expose them to GIS, Cyber Security, Network Security and Computer Forensics.

The summer camp runs from July 20 �?? 25. EMU is looking for business partners to show employment opportunities on July 23 for a cook out. Tables will be available for any corporation that wishes to share employment opportunities. The NSA and Homeland security are partners and will be providing lectures on Sunday and Wednesday of the event.

A National Science Foundation award is supporting a three-year project

to develop the Detroit I-Test Youth Project. Collaborating

with Eastern Michigan University in this broad-based, wide-ranging

effort are the Detroit Public Schools, the City of Detroit Homeland

Security and Emergency Management, and the Environmental System Research Institute, Inc.

The project will provide two cohorts of 100 high school students

from Detroit with training and hands-on practice in a variety of

Information Technology management tools,” says Project Director Yichun

Xie of Geography and Geology and the EMU Institute for Geospatial

Research and Education (IGRE). Other EMU people involved include

Gerald “Skip” Lawver, Director of the EMU Center for Information

Assurance, and Xiaolin Luo of IGRE, who is a doctoral student in the EMU College of Technology.

“The program will leverage online learning environments, online

mentoring and support activities, as well as direct face-to-face

training to engage the students in STEM learning in an urban

community-based problem-solving environment,” says Xie.

“This sort of far-reaching effort is especially needed for students in

economically disadvantaged urban areas since they generally have few

experiences with information technologies in real-world situations,

especially for emergency and crisis management.

“With advanced skills in IT applications, these urban youth will also

have unlimited career opportunities. Furthermore, this program

can serve as a model for empowering youth from any community to

determine their own fortunes.”

The project is aimed at high school students in Detroit. The

recruited students will receive about 250 hours of training and

hands-on experience in IT and geographic information systems and

technology (GIS/T) during a two-year period. They will also be trained

in Information Assurance and Computer Emergency Response Team

Operations, and serve a summer internship with a Detroit city department or contractor.

“This project will have a profound impact on these high school

students by creating cutting-edge career pathways for them, providing

STEM learning opportunities, and opening linkages to college

experiences,” Xie says, summing up the project’s significance. “The

long-range effect will be very substantial.�?�

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