Cynthia Y. Lester

Advancing the Multidisciplinary Nature of Human Computer Interaction in a Newly Developed Undergraduate Course

Human computer interaction is a multidisciplinary field, which often involves the design, implementation and evaluation of interactive systems for human use. Therefore, an ideal designer of these systems would have expertise in a wide variety of topics which include but are not limited to psychology, sociology, ergonomics, computer science and engineering, business, art and graphic design, and technical writing. However, it is impractical to assert that any one designer should have expertise in all these areas. Furthermore, when the concepts of HCI are introduced, the course is typically taught in a computer science department, by a computer science professor, to computer science majors. The aim of this paper is to describe the development of an undergraduate HCI course that is taught from a multidisciplinary perspective to a multidisciplinary audience using themes from the various disciplines that are encompassed within HCI. Suggestions for future changes to the course are also provided.

Designing an Undergraduate Software Security Course

Software systems continue to become more complex. However, with this increased complexity, also comes an increased chance of malicious attacks resulting in system failures. Since 1988 statistics indicate that corresponding to the phenomenal growth of the Internet, the number of security incidents reported to the Computer Emergency Response Team has increased by 498%, and the number of Internet sites affected by security lapses worldwide has increased by 702%. Consequently, as computer science educators, we have been charged with the task of providing our students with the requisite skills and knowledge needed to design and develop secure software. However, a survey of software security courses found that the target audiences for many of the courses are either graduate students or software security professionals. The aim of this paper is to describe the development of an undergraduate software security course. The paper presents the motivation behind the course and describes challenges faced.

Creating gender parity: an instruction aide's influence

The decline in the number of women in computing disciplines has been attributed to different causes, and research on the decline continues to grow. While there are numerous reasons suggested for the imbalance in these disciplines, the perceptions that women hold about their computing capabilities continue to be of interest. The current study investigates how a vicarious learning experience can be used to influence computer selfefficacy. To implement the vicarious experience, a computer-assisted peer-modeling instruction aide was developed. The study reveals that vicarious learning has a significant impact on female and male computer selfefficacy, and that the impact may be more significant for females.

Training and Educating Undergraduate Students in the Discipline of HCI

An incoming freshman student stops by your office because he/she has read that your research area is HCI and desires to work with you. As teachers and academic advisers, how should we assist our students in choosing courses that will be beneficial to their study of HCI, but that will also provide the breadth that undergraduate studies provide? How should we as researchers assist our students in developing skills that will be beneficial to conducting research in HCI? How should we as teacher-researchers ensure that our student graduate from our universities adequately prepared? The aim of this paper is to present the HCI curriculum, to present the rationale for students to gain training in certain HCI-related areas that also provide for the breadth required in an undergraduate degree program, and to also suggest ideas for future work.

Incorporating Software Security into an Undergraduate Software Engineering Course

Secure software development has become a topic of increasing importance, as a general fear rises due to security holes, vulnerabilities, and attacks. To ensure the security of information in a society of file sharing, on-line business transactions, and e-communication, undergraduate students will soon be required to implement software security concepts into their software development processes as soon as they complete their degrees. Consequently, it is imperative for graduates of computer science departments to be trained in the fundamentals of information security and to gain hands-on experience with secure software development. To address this issue computer science educators at the undergraduate level are turning their attentions to incorporating security issues within traditional computer science courses. The paper describes an existing undergraduate software engineering course that has been modified to include software security concepts. Challenges and future work are also presented.

Shifting the Paradigm: Training Undergraduate Students in Software Security

Computer software is typically developed according to software engineering methodologies. However, with the introduction of the Internet and the World Wide Web, protecting data has become a topic of importance. In order to protect data from hackers and saboteurs in a global society where e-commerce, ebusiness, and e-sharing are the “norm”, professionals should have sound knowledge in methods to protect data. Consequently, the area of information assurance (IA) has become one of great significance and it is important that the next generation of technologists are trained in development techniques that can ensure the confidentially and integrity of information. Traditionally, courses in secure software development are offered at the graduate level or in a stand-alone software security course at the undergraduate level. The aim of this paper is to present a paradigm for introducing software security to undergraduates in a traditionally taught software engineering course. The paper also presents challenges and future work.

Training Undergraduate Students in User-Centered Design

Computer software is typically developed according to software engineering methodologies. However, it has been noted that many software development projects fail to achieve their goals. Further it has been stated that some estimates of the failure rate to produce a software product is as high as 60 percent. Many of these problems can be attributed to poor communication between customers and system developers or between end-users and developers. However, many software development life cycles do not focus on understanding the business needs of an organization or how organizational issues may influence system development. As educators of the next generation of computing professionals it is our responsibility to train students in development methodologies where careful attention is paid to understanding the needs of stakeholders. The aim of this paper is to present a conceptual framework for training undergraduate

Infusing Information Assurance into an Undergraduate CS Curriculum

With the advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web, the focus on securing information has become a topic of increasing importance. To ensure the security of information in a society of e-commerce, e-business, and e-sharing it is essential for graduates of computer science departments to be trained in the fundamentals of information security and to gain hands-on experience with security tools. To address this issue computer science educators are turning their attentions to the development of software and information security courses. The goal of this paper is to describe the development of an Information Assurance track in Computer Science and Information Systems at the undergraduate level. The paper describes existing courses that have been modified to include security concepts as well as the paper introduces the new courses that have been developed.