Preparing the next cyber-resilient workforce through cross-pollination education
David Oliver, Michael Haney · 2017
Cross-pollination has been used by biologists and the horticultural community to increase resilience to disease, insects, and other undesirable conditions in plants for centuries. This paper applies the concept of cross-pollination to educating the workforce at the graduate level. Crosspollination in the context of education implies the free-flow of ideas across disciplines by co-locating learners from one discipline with those of another in the same graduate program and encouraging them to share knowledge and experience. By building partnerships between industry and academia, employing hands-on learning techniques, and “flipping” the classroom we will better meet the needs industry has for competent, knowledgeable and motivated personnel especially in the area of critical infrastructure cybersecurity.