October 15, 2025 • 17 mins
October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and Dragon Talk is celebrating by exploring how Howard Community College is shaping its digital education. Joel Offenberg, Department Head for Computer Science and Cyber Technology, joins host Ryan Record to discuss why cybersecurity is an essential skill for everyone to stay on top of. Learn about the fantastic apprenticeships and career opportunities available to HCC’s computer science/cyber technology students, and how a game-changing National Science Foundation grant is completely revamping the college's Cybersecurity program. If you are looking into career paths that protect our digital information or even want to brush up on your cyber tech know-how, this is a must-listen!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
[Music]
Hello listeners and welcome to Dragon
Talk, Howard Community Colleg's
awardwinning student life podcast. I'm
your host Ryan Record and today we are
celebrating that October is National
Cyber Security Awareness Month. At HCC,
(00:22):
we're making sure our students are ready
to be the frontline defenders of
tomorrow because cyber security isn't
just a niche skill anymore. It's
essential in our digital age. Today, we
will discuss the vital importance of
cyber security, the amazing career paths
open to our students, and how a
substantial National Science Foundation
(00:43):
grant is revamping our cyber security
program. Here to speak on these topics
and much more, I'm honored to be joined
by HCC's department head for computer
science and cyber technology, Joel
Offenberg.
How you doing today?
It's been a busy day, you know, as
(01:04):
always is. I know you have a very busy
month ahead with it being cyber security
month. So, uh, tell us a little bit
about cyber security and why it's
important. Well, almost every business
today needs to be worrying about cyber
security. We used to just think of cyber
security as something a few nerds would
worry about, but now really everybody,
(01:24):
whether you're running a shoe store or a
government contractor, you all have to
worry about it because the adversaries,
the bad guys are interested in stealing
information. credit card information,
yes, but also things like information
about shopping habits, information about
what movies people are watching because
it's something that they can use for
(01:45):
advertising purposes. It's something
they can use as a way of trying to
approach people for social engineering
and everybody puts a lot of material
onto social media now. So, you learn a
lot about people that way. Yeah, it's
pretty far out that we live in an age
and not many people know about it where
data brokers can just take our
information and sell it amongst each
(02:06):
other and we're like, "Hey, I was just
talking about that product and here it
is on my phone." It's it's pretty wild.
Well, it's also things like if I've been
shopping on Amazon for something and
then I'm watching some TV shows on
Prime, all of a sudden the ads are
there. Now, that's because I'm doing
business with the same entity. But
still, after a while, you start to see
(02:28):
that these brokers are trading
information and they're learning a lot
about you and they're building up a very
good picture of who you are and what
you're interested in.
Yeah, it's incredible, but also a little
concerning. So, tell us a bit about the
cyber security program here at HCC and
and why folks should come out and study
it.
Well, as I said, everybody needs to know
(02:50):
cyber security. Our program here, our
associate degree program here at HCC
primarily focuses on getting folks ready
for the workplace. That doesn't mean
that people don't study here and then
move on to a 4-year college or graduate
school. We've certainly had students who
have done that. But for many of our
students, the goal here is to study here
(03:11):
and then look at finding a job. Some of
our students will find a job and then
also go to school part-time or go to
school full-time and work part-time. But
cyber security, there's a huge need for
it in the industry in the world today.
There's several hundred thousand jobs
just in the United States looking for
qualified cyber security experts. Now,
(03:34):
our program here is mostly focused on
industry standards that are widely used.
So we're looking at training students in
the certifications for the compia that's
coomtia
compia certifications the network plus
the security plus the pentest plus these
(03:55):
are industry standard certifications and
many of our students pursue those
certifications. They're not part of our
classes but students can pursue those on
their own. Not every student does that,
but even if they're not going to take
the certification exam itself, the fact
that it's a nationally recognized,
industry recognized standard curriculum
(04:15):
is a big help for the students when
they're trying to apply for jobs or
apply for four-year schools.
Yeah. And it's incredible that even with
an associates degree or a certification,
you can enter the workforce pretty much
right away, even at like a part-time
level like you were saying.
And that's a change from the last 5
years. It was for a long time, of
(04:37):
course, in some industries it's still
considered that cyber security is a
professional technical job and that they
want to see people with a bachelor's
degree, but partly because there is this
shortage of workers and partly because
we don't really need to have everybody
know everything about cyber security to
at least get started. And because it's
(05:00):
changing so much, however many degrees
you have, you're still going to be
taking more classes and learning more
stuff. So, you might as well be helping
people do on the job training. So, it
has certainly changed in the last 5
years where more and more employers are
open to cyber professionals who don't
have a four-year degree.
Yeah. And like you said, it's it's just
(05:21):
changing so rapidly that to stay on top
of your certifications, it makes sense
for people already in the field to come
back to HTC to stay up to date on all
the new stuff. Moore's law technology
doubles every couple years. Well, and of
course, the biggest change that we're
all looking at right now is artificial
intelligence,
right?
And in a couple years, something that's
going to be really affecting uh cyber
(05:42):
security in particular is quantum
computing. Both of those change the way
we solve problems and we have computers
that solve problems and they're changing
the realm right now. There's new
cryptography algorithms that are being
designed to be quantum resistant.
Artificial intelligence I mean it's not
new. We've been using artificial
intelligence as a tool for 30 years or
(06:04):
more. My my master's degree I'm not
exactly a recent graduate. My master's
degree was in artificial intelligence. I
wrote a neural network to do image
processing. And it was in the 1990s.
Wow.
What's changed is commoditized
artificial intelligence. Artificial
intelligence that anybody can use with a
credit card or by signing up for a free
(06:26):
account. That's what's new and the wide
availability of AI.
So on that note, tell us about how you
guys prepare students for the workforce.
So, a lot of our courses, as I said,
they're focused on the Competia
certifications.
They also have a large hands-on
component. All of our courses, at least
(06:47):
in the cyber tech realm, there's always
a hands-on keyboard component. I like
that term, hands-on keyboard, where
you're not just sitting there listening
to someone like me tell you stuff.
You're learning it and you're applying
it in an environment. You're configuring
firewalls. You're troubleshooting
networking. You're trying out to use
(07:08):
tools like Metas-ploit, tools like
Splunk, tools like end mapap, tools like
Wireshark. And for those of you who are
cyber professionals, right, I just
talked about some of the tools that you
use every day. And for those of you who
are not cyber professionals, that didn't
sound like anything. It sounds like I
made a bunch of things up, but those are
tools that we use all the time when
(07:30):
we're working in the cyber field. And so
we want to make sure our students are
getting their hands on the keyboard.
They're working with Amazon Web
Services, they're working with Kali
Linux, they're working with tools like
Metas-Ploit because these are the tools
that you need to have in your back
pocket.
Yeah, that's tangible experience.
(07:50):
So if you could tell us a bit about like
the programs and opportunities that are
available to students who are interested
in the field. So at HCC there's we have
several uh existing opportunities and
there's a couple new ones that we're
working on right now. So one of the big
opportunities that we have now is
something we call the cyber ready clinic
and I'm only partly involved in it.
(08:13):
Somebody else actually runs it but this
is where local companies from Howard
County, usually nonprofits but we're
expanding it come to HCC. They sign up
for an audit and then some of our
students go and they provide free audits
and assessments to those companies uh
small businesses, nonprofit businesses.
(08:33):
Cyber security is one of those things
that does not scale well to small
businesses very well. So this is a way
of providing something to the community.
Our students get some hands-on
experience and it's a practical thing
that in the end these kinds of
assessments are what people need to do
for their career. It's a win-win for the
students who get some practical
(08:54):
experience and for business partners and
local companies who are getting an
assessment and review of their cyber
security. Another opportunity that we
have is we partner with several
companies for our registered
apprenticeship programs. Some of our
students come enroll in the
apprenticeship program first and then
start taking our classes. Some are
taking our classes and then they are
(09:15):
recruited into the apprenticeship
program. But the goal of this is to give
the students uh experience while they're
working here and then also get a job
later on. So the model for these is that
the students will complete a program
with an employer. The employer will pay
for their college tuition. The employer
will give them some part-time work while
(09:36):
they're studying here and the employer
will give them a position for two years
afterwards.
This is a big deal for all of us because
for uh our students, they're getting
something really great. They're getting
um you know, their tuition is being paid
for and they're getting some part-time
work as well while they're still
studying. They know there's a job that
(09:58):
they can move to afterwards. It works
well for us as a school because it also
helps us work with employers and it
helps us tune our courses to what the
employers are looking for. Another thing
that uh we have going on that's just
starting and it's going to be in the
couple years down the road. We just won
a grant from the National Science
(10:20):
Foundation to create uh some new courses
for cyber security. One of those courses
will be on governance and regulations
and compliance and one is going to be on
healthcare informatics and healthcare
cyber security. These are classes again
where they're going to be a good deal of
hands-on. Uh the governance, regulatory,
(10:41):
compliance course is probably going to
tie in a bit to the cyber ready clinics
that we had been looking at. And that
may be true for the healthcare
informatics course as well. We just
received the grant so we're just
starting work on it October 1st, 2025.
And this is a several year project
writing new courses, creating new
(11:02):
material. This is something that we're
starting from. No other school in uh
Maryland, no other community college in
Maryland is offering courses like this
at the associate level. So, it's going
to be a big breakthrough for us. It's
also really useful for our students
because they will be able to have some
skills. They will be able to work with
(11:22):
uh a lot of our employers in the state
of Maryland. We all know that the
federal government is a big employer. We
all know that the state government is a
big employer. So there's a lot of
positions where the governance and
regulations and compliance is a key
component of the job. So having that in
your back pocket, having that on your
(11:44):
resume is something that's going to be
very useful. Healthcare informatics
between the University of Maryland and
Johns Hopkins. Maryland is a leading
provider of healthcare. We have a lot of
medical offices, a lot of hospitals. We
have a lot of medicine. I mean, Harvard
Community College is literally next door
to a hospital, but there's also a large
(12:06):
medical presence, especially because of
Johns Hopkins. So, there's a lot of need
for healthcare informatics. That's both
for people who are interested in
studying cyber security to understand
the challenges in healthcare, but also
for health care students to learn about
cyber security and how to protect
themselves and the organizations that
(12:27):
they're working for or hoping to work
with someday. So, those are brand new
programs that we are going to be rolling
out over the next two years or so.
That's our our roadmap for right now.
And as I said, it's going to be an
exciting new time because this is really
targeting what we know to be the
employers in this area in this state and
(12:50):
providing students with the experiences
that they need to be successful.
Sometimes this is going to be students
who are studying business or studying
healthcare to take one of our classes to
help them uh work better in the business
realm or to work better in health care
as people who are aware of cyber
security as well as for people who are
studying cyber security to be
(13:12):
well-rounded and prepared for the
workplaces that they are most likely to
land in.
Wow. Awesome. I I I can't think of
another word to describe that. That is
truly a special
opportunity. We're very excited to be
able to do this and to be able to
provide this new opportunity to our
students and we're going to share our
(13:32):
results with the rest of the community
as well. And I will make a short pitch
here that if somebody out there who's
listening to this works in healthcare
industry or works in uh business and is
interested in helping us, we do also
have an advisory board that we're going
to be using to uh help us design these
(13:53):
courses and guide the curriculum in a
way that's useful for the students and
the employers. So if anybody's out there
uh thinking, hey, that's great. How do I
help guide this? We're looking for that,
too.
Very cool. Very cool. Yeah, great call
to action. Are there any other changes
as a result of the National Science
Foundation grant that people can look
(14:13):
forward to?
Well, there are some other changes that
are going to have to take place as a
result of that. Okay. Change. So, we're
going to be changing around a couple of
other classes, but that's the major
change. Got
Well, actually, one other change that
will be happening is uh we will be
changing our associate of arts program
to an associate of applied science
program.
Cool. So the meaning of that from a
(14:35):
practical perspective is the students
will take fewer uh electives and more
technical courses. It does mean that
transferring to a four-year school will
be a little bit different but it's more
towards getting uh students ready for
the workplace than it is for four-year
schools. That doesn't mean you can't
transfer to a four-year school. It just
(14:56):
means the process is going to be a
little different and the expectations uh
will be a little different.
Awesome. So, are there any other changes
coming?
Well, of course, I mentioned about
artificial intelligence and everybody at
Howard Community College is interested
in creating coursework and adding
assignments in artificial intelligence.
Our department is taking a lead on this.
(15:17):
We are creating some new courses in
artificial intelligence. We are going to
be offering starting in the fall of
2026.
And we're incorporating artificial
intelligence exercises into our current
courses, whether that's the cyber
security courses or any of our other
majors, whether that's computer science,
whether that's application development,
(15:39):
whether that's cyber forensics, the
artificial intelligence tools are
already out there, but we need to make
sure students have hands-on experience
with them. It's taking some time for us
to get that done. It's not something we
can do instantly, but it is something
that is on our road map for the next
year or two.
Incredible. HCC is laying down a strong
(16:00):
foundation for cyber technology that the
whole state and maybe even the whole
country can take note of. So Joel, thank
you so much for coming by today and
happy cyber security month.
Well, thank you Ryan. It was great
talking to you.
What an insightful conversation. Give it
(16:21):
up once again for Professor Joel
Offenberg, head of computer science and
cyber technology here at HCC. We
highlighted why cyber security skills
are a non-negotiable in our modern age,
the amazing workforce opportunities
waiting for HCC graduates, and the
exciting future of our cyber security
program thanks to that game-changing
(16:43):
National Science Foundation grant. If
you're an HCC student who is interested
in a career which protects our digital
world, make sure you visit the computer
science and cyber technology department
page on HCC's website to learn more
about our revamp program. And don't miss
out on securing your future today. Well,
(17:03):
that does it for me, folks. Thanks for
tuning in to Dragon Talk. Until next
time, this is Ryan Record signing out.
Thanks for tuning in. If you enjoyed
what you just heard, we have a whole
universe of podcasts waiting for you.
(17:24):
Simply search DragonPodcasts wherever
you get your podcasts. You can also
explore our full lineup and discover new
shows at podbean.com/dragonpodcasts.
That's podbean.com/dragon
[Music]
Hello listeners and welcome to Dragon
Talk, Howard Community Colleg's
awardwinning student life podcast. I'm
your host Ryan Record and today we are
celebrating that October is National
Cyber Security Awareness Month. At HCC,
(00:22):
we're making sure our students are ready
to be the frontline defenders of
tomorrow because cyber security isn't
just a niche skill anymore. It's
essential in our digital age. Today, we
will discuss the vital importance of
cyber security, the amazing career paths
open to our students, and how a
substantial National Science Foundation
(00:43):
grant is revamping our cyber security
program. Here to speak on these topics
and much more, I'm honored to be joined
by HCC's department head for computer
science and cyber technology, Joel
Offenberg.
How you doing today?
It's been a busy day, you know, as
(01:04):
always is. I know you have a very busy
month ahead with it being cyber security
month. So, uh, tell us a little bit
about cyber security and why it's
important. Well, almost every business
today needs to be worrying about cyber
security. We used to just think of cyber
security as something a few nerds would
worry about, but now really everybody,
(01:24):
whether you're running a shoe store or a
government contractor, you all have to
worry about it because the adversaries,
the bad guys are interested in stealing
information. credit card information,
yes, but also things like information
about shopping habits, information about
what movies people are watching because
it's something that they can use for
(01:45):
advertising purposes. It's something
they can use as a way of trying to
approach people for social engineering
and everybody puts a lot of material
onto social media now. So, you learn a
lot about people that way. Yeah, it's
pretty far out that we live in an age
and not many people know about it where
data brokers can just take our
information and sell it amongst each
(02:06):
other and we're like, "Hey, I was just
talking about that product and here it
is on my phone." It's it's pretty wild.
Well, it's also things like if I've been
shopping on Amazon for something and
then I'm watching some TV shows on
Prime, all of a sudden the ads are
there. Now, that's because I'm doing
business with the same entity. But
still, after a while, you start to see
(02:28):
that these brokers are trading
information and they're learning a lot
about you and they're building up a very
good picture of who you are and what
you're interested in.
Yeah, it's incredible, but also a little
concerning. So, tell us a bit about the
cyber security program here at HCC and
and why folks should come out and study
it.
Well, as I said, everybody needs to know
(02:50):
cyber security. Our program here, our
associate degree program here at HCC
primarily focuses on getting folks ready
for the workplace. That doesn't mean
that people don't study here and then
move on to a 4-year college or graduate
school. We've certainly had students who
have done that. But for many of our
students, the goal here is to study here
(03:11):
and then look at finding a job. Some of
our students will find a job and then
also go to school part-time or go to
school full-time and work part-time. But
cyber security, there's a huge need for
it in the industry in the world today.
There's several hundred thousand jobs
just in the United States looking for
qualified cyber security experts. Now,
(03:34):
our program here is mostly focused on
industry standards that are widely used.
So we're looking at training students in
the certifications for the compia that's
coomtia
compia certifications the network plus
the security plus the pentest plus these
(03:55):
are industry standard certifications and
many of our students pursue those
certifications. They're not part of our
classes but students can pursue those on
their own. Not every student does that,
but even if they're not going to take
the certification exam itself, the fact
that it's a nationally recognized,
industry recognized standard curriculum
(04:15):
is a big help for the students when
they're trying to apply for jobs or
apply for four-year schools.
Yeah. And it's incredible that even with
an associates degree or a certification,
you can enter the workforce pretty much
right away, even at like a part-time
level like you were saying.
And that's a change from the last 5
years. It was for a long time, of
(04:37):
course, in some industries it's still
considered that cyber security is a
professional technical job and that they
want to see people with a bachelor's
degree, but partly because there is this
shortage of workers and partly because
we don't really need to have everybody
know everything about cyber security to
at least get started. And because it's
(05:00):
changing so much, however many degrees
you have, you're still going to be
taking more classes and learning more
stuff. So, you might as well be helping
people do on the job training. So, it
has certainly changed in the last 5
years where more and more employers are
open to cyber professionals who don't
have a four-year degree.
Yeah. And like you said, it's it's just
(05:21):
changing so rapidly that to stay on top
of your certifications, it makes sense
for people already in the field to come
back to HTC to stay up to date on all
the new stuff. Moore's law technology
doubles every couple years. Well, and of
course, the biggest change that we're
all looking at right now is artificial
intelligence,
right?
And in a couple years, something that's
going to be really affecting uh cyber
(05:42):
security in particular is quantum
computing. Both of those change the way
we solve problems and we have computers
that solve problems and they're changing
the realm right now. There's new
cryptography algorithms that are being
designed to be quantum resistant.
Artificial intelligence I mean it's not
new. We've been using artificial
intelligence as a tool for 30 years or
(06:04):
more. My my master's degree I'm not
exactly a recent graduate. My master's
degree was in artificial intelligence. I
wrote a neural network to do image
processing. And it was in the 1990s.
Wow.
What's changed is commoditized
artificial intelligence. Artificial
intelligence that anybody can use with a
credit card or by signing up for a free
(06:26):
account. That's what's new and the wide
availability of AI.
So on that note, tell us about how you
guys prepare students for the workforce.
So, a lot of our courses, as I said,
they're focused on the Competia
certifications.
They also have a large hands-on
component. All of our courses, at least
(06:47):
in the cyber tech realm, there's always
a hands-on keyboard component. I like
that term, hands-on keyboard, where
you're not just sitting there listening
to someone like me tell you stuff.
You're learning it and you're applying
it in an environment. You're configuring
firewalls. You're troubleshooting
networking. You're trying out to use
(07:08):
tools like Metas-ploit, tools like
Splunk, tools like end mapap, tools like
Wireshark. And for those of you who are
cyber professionals, right, I just
talked about some of the tools that you
use every day. And for those of you who
are not cyber professionals, that didn't
sound like anything. It sounds like I
made a bunch of things up, but those are
tools that we use all the time when
(07:30):
we're working in the cyber field. And so
we want to make sure our students are
getting their hands on the keyboard.
They're working with Amazon Web
Services, they're working with Kali
Linux, they're working with tools like
Metas-Ploit because these are the tools
that you need to have in your back
pocket.
Yeah, that's tangible experience.
(07:50):
So if you could tell us a bit about like
the programs and opportunities that are
available to students who are interested
in the field. So at HCC there's we have
several uh existing opportunities and
there's a couple new ones that we're
working on right now. So one of the big
opportunities that we have now is
something we call the cyber ready clinic
and I'm only partly involved in it.
(08:13):
Somebody else actually runs it but this
is where local companies from Howard
County, usually nonprofits but we're
expanding it come to HCC. They sign up
for an audit and then some of our
students go and they provide free audits
and assessments to those companies uh
small businesses, nonprofit businesses.
(08:33):
Cyber security is one of those things
that does not scale well to small
businesses very well. So this is a way
of providing something to the community.
Our students get some hands-on
experience and it's a practical thing
that in the end these kinds of
assessments are what people need to do
for their career. It's a win-win for the
students who get some practical
(08:54):
experience and for business partners and
local companies who are getting an
assessment and review of their cyber
security. Another opportunity that we
have is we partner with several
companies for our registered
apprenticeship programs. Some of our
students come enroll in the
apprenticeship program first and then
start taking our classes. Some are
taking our classes and then they are
(09:15):
recruited into the apprenticeship
program. But the goal of this is to give
the students uh experience while they're
working here and then also get a job
later on. So the model for these is that
the students will complete a program
with an employer. The employer will pay
for their college tuition. The employer
will give them some part-time work while
(09:36):
they're studying here and the employer
will give them a position for two years
afterwards.
This is a big deal for all of us because
for uh our students, they're getting
something really great. They're getting
um you know, their tuition is being paid
for and they're getting some part-time
work as well while they're still
studying. They know there's a job that
(09:58):
they can move to afterwards. It works
well for us as a school because it also
helps us work with employers and it
helps us tune our courses to what the
employers are looking for. Another thing
that uh we have going on that's just
starting and it's going to be in the
couple years down the road. We just won
a grant from the National Science
(10:20):
Foundation to create uh some new courses
for cyber security. One of those courses
will be on governance and regulations
and compliance and one is going to be on
healthcare informatics and healthcare
cyber security. These are classes again
where they're going to be a good deal of
hands-on. Uh the governance, regulatory,
(10:41):
compliance course is probably going to
tie in a bit to the cyber ready clinics
that we had been looking at. And that
may be true for the healthcare
informatics course as well. We just
received the grant so we're just
starting work on it October 1st, 2025.
And this is a several year project
writing new courses, creating new
(11:02):
material. This is something that we're
starting from. No other school in uh
Maryland, no other community college in
Maryland is offering courses like this
at the associate level. So, it's going
to be a big breakthrough for us. It's
also really useful for our students
because they will be able to have some
skills. They will be able to work with
(11:22):
uh a lot of our employers in the state
of Maryland. We all know that the
federal government is a big employer. We
all know that the state government is a
big employer. So there's a lot of
positions where the governance and
regulations and compliance is a key
component of the job. So having that in
your back pocket, having that on your
(11:44):
resume is something that's going to be
very useful. Healthcare informatics
between the University of Maryland and
Johns Hopkins. Maryland is a leading
provider of healthcare. We have a lot of
medical offices, a lot of hospitals. We
have a lot of medicine. I mean, Harvard
Community College is literally next door
to a hospital, but there's also a large
(12:06):
medical presence, especially because of
Johns Hopkins. So, there's a lot of need
for healthcare informatics. That's both
for people who are interested in
studying cyber security to understand
the challenges in healthcare, but also
for health care students to learn about
cyber security and how to protect
themselves and the organizations that
(12:27):
they're working for or hoping to work
with someday. So, those are brand new
programs that we are going to be rolling
out over the next two years or so.
That's our our roadmap for right now.
And as I said, it's going to be an
exciting new time because this is really
targeting what we know to be the
employers in this area in this state and
(12:50):
providing students with the experiences
that they need to be successful.
Sometimes this is going to be students
who are studying business or studying
healthcare to take one of our classes to
help them uh work better in the business
realm or to work better in health care
as people who are aware of cyber
security as well as for people who are
studying cyber security to be
(13:12):
well-rounded and prepared for the
workplaces that they are most likely to
land in.
Wow. Awesome. I I I can't think of
another word to describe that. That is
truly a special
opportunity. We're very excited to be
able to do this and to be able to
provide this new opportunity to our
students and we're going to share our
(13:32):
results with the rest of the community
as well. And I will make a short pitch
here that if somebody out there who's
listening to this works in healthcare
industry or works in uh business and is
interested in helping us, we do also
have an advisory board that we're going
to be using to uh help us design these
(13:53):
courses and guide the curriculum in a
way that's useful for the students and
the employers. So if anybody's out there
uh thinking, hey, that's great. How do I
help guide this? We're looking for that,
too.
Very cool. Very cool. Yeah, great call
to action. Are there any other changes
as a result of the National Science
Foundation grant that people can look
(14:13):
forward to?
Well, there are some other changes that
are going to have to take place as a
result of that. Okay. Change. So, we're
going to be changing around a couple of
other classes, but that's the major
change. Got
Well, actually, one other change that
will be happening is uh we will be
changing our associate of arts program
to an associate of applied science
program.
Cool. So the meaning of that from a
(14:35):
practical perspective is the students
will take fewer uh electives and more
technical courses. It does mean that
transferring to a four-year school will
be a little bit different but it's more
towards getting uh students ready for
the workplace than it is for four-year
schools. That doesn't mean you can't
transfer to a four-year school. It just
(14:56):
means the process is going to be a
little different and the expectations uh
will be a little different.
Awesome. So, are there any other changes
coming?
Well, of course, I mentioned about
artificial intelligence and everybody at
Howard Community College is interested
in creating coursework and adding
assignments in artificial intelligence.
Our department is taking a lead on this.
(15:17):
We are creating some new courses in
artificial intelligence. We are going to
be offering starting in the fall of
2026.
And we're incorporating artificial
intelligence exercises into our current
courses, whether that's the cyber
security courses or any of our other
majors, whether that's computer science,
whether that's application development,
(15:39):
whether that's cyber forensics, the
artificial intelligence tools are
already out there, but we need to make
sure students have hands-on experience
with them. It's taking some time for us
to get that done. It's not something we
can do instantly, but it is something
that is on our road map for the next
year or two.
Incredible. HCC is laying down a strong
(16:00):
foundation for cyber technology that the
whole state and maybe even the whole
country can take note of. So Joel, thank
you so much for coming by today and
happy cyber security month.
Well, thank you Ryan. It was great
talking to you.
What an insightful conversation. Give it
(16:21):
up once again for Professor Joel
Offenberg, head of computer science and
cyber technology here at HCC. We
highlighted why cyber security skills
are a non-negotiable in our modern age,
the amazing workforce opportunities
waiting for HCC graduates, and the
exciting future of our cyber security
program thanks to that game-changing
(16:43):
National Science Foundation grant. If
you're an HCC student who is interested
in a career which protects our digital
world, make sure you visit the computer
science and cyber technology department
page on HCC's website to learn more
about our revamp program. And don't miss
out on securing your future today. Well,
(17:03):
that does it for me, folks. Thanks for
tuning in to Dragon Talk. Until next
time, this is Ryan Record signing out.
Thanks for tuning in. If you enjoyed
what you just heard, we have a whole
universe of podcasts waiting for you.
(17:24):
Simply search DragonPodcasts wherever
you get your podcasts. You can also
explore our full lineup and discover new
shows at podbean.com/dragonpodcasts.
That's podbean.com/dragon
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.