A collaborative effort between the Research on Resilient Cites, Racism, and Equity (RRCRE) initiative at UConn Hartford, and the Computer Science and Engineering Department in the UConn School of Engineering has resulted in the institution receiving a federal grant that will help provide technology and internet access to traditionally underserved students in the Hartford area.

UConn is one of 61 college and universities from around the country to receive this grant from the Department of Commerces National Telecommunications and Information Administration. UConn is receiving approximately $2.86 million over a two-year period to launch a pilot program.

The essence of the idea is to reach out to students in Hartford that have little or no access to internet or computer equipment and create an opportunity for these folks, says associate professor of sociology and Africana studies David Embrick, who also oversees the RRCRE at UConn Hartford. We want to create a realistic pipeline for students who are interested in fields of engineering and computer science, and even those that dont even realize that they have that interest.

The UConn program will focus on students in Hartford entering high school, those at the end of the high school career, and students just starting college at UConn.

The grant will help fund internet access at home for these students, and provide them with basic computer equipment and support, such as workshops and instruction.

The success of Dr. Embrick and UConn Hartfords Research on Resilient Cities, Racism, and Equity highlights the strength of conducting research in collaboration with community organizations, says Mark Overmyer-Velzquez, the director of UConn Hartford. This grant will provide access to high impact learning opportunities for our UConn students and support Hartford schools to attain vital access to broadband technology and related education.

Embrick says faculty members in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering learned about the grant opportunity and approached him about a joint effort for applying. Embrick thought it would be a perfect fit for UConn Hartford, and went to work with professor Laurent Michel, associate professor Zhijie Jerry Shi, and assistant professor Qian Yang, in the School of Engineering, along with UConn Hartford Director of Finance and Operations Cynthia Miranda-Donnelly in the application process.

There is a shortage of talent in the computer engineering field on both a national and state basis, says Laurent. However, there are many people from different walks of life who have the capabilities to be successful at it. Very often, the more privileged ones get so much more exposure at a young age and can recognize that they have this talent. The others dont have these opportunities, so we want to nurture that natural inclination that exists in these groups, but right now is untapped. We want to give them access to these resources for them to reach their potential, and follow career paths that are very rewarding both intellectually and financially.

Embrick says that young scholars who dont have internet access readily available can lack the capacity to see what career paths are truly available to them. The level of inequities, just based on lack of access to the internet, is just immense, especially in this day and age.

The cooperative effort that resulted in earning the grant will continue in its practice. The computer science faculty members will be creating workshops to help and guide the students by providing them ways to navigate the internet and offer them practical skills which they can use in their future studies.

We will be in charge of the budget and managing the operations and evaluations of the program here at UConn Hartford to make sure there is long-term success, says Embrick. The School of Engineering will be building the program and workshops for the students themselves, so together its a powerful force. Its a good illustration of a strong collaboration in the way UConn wants it to be.

While the grant is only for two years, there are long-term goals beyond that timeframe for this program to continue by offering students guidance and resources in all parts of their lives to develop successful careers. There are also long-term goals of hiring three IT staff members and server equipment to benefit the program.

Laurent says the group will monitor cohorts in the program as their time progresses from early high school through college.

As a land-grant institution, UConn has the responsibility to the people of Connecticut, and UConn Hartford, as an urban campus, has a specific responsibility to the people of Hartford, says Embrick. There are real needs to do community engagement in a way that not just facilities one-way conversation between academic and the community. It must be done in a way that engages the community and builds upon the mission of the Research on Resilient Cities, Racism, and Equity initiative.

The rest is here:

Grant Will Help Break Down Barriers in Access to Technology in ... - University of Connecticut

"The technically interesting thing about this project is that the defense solution is simple; however, in order to get the solution, we must discover what the attack is first, said Xu.

The most popular approach that hackers use to access devices is social engineering, Chen explained. Attackers lure individuals to install malicious apps, visit malicious websites or listen to malicious audio.

For example, an individuals smart device becomes vulnerable once they watch a malicious YouTube video embedded with NUIT audio or video attacks, either on a laptop or mobile device. Signals can discreetly attack the microphone on the same device or infiltrate the microphone via speakers from other devices such as laptops, vehicle audio systems, and smart home devices.

If you play YouTube on your smart TV, that smart TV has a speaker, right? The sound of NUIT malicious commands will become inaudible, and it can attack your cell phone too and communicate with your Google Assistant or Alexa devices. It can even happen in Zooms during meetings. If someone unmutes themselves, they can embed the attack signal to hack your phone thats placed next to your computer during the meeting, Chen explained.

Once they have unauthorized access to a device, hackers can send inaudible action commands to reduce a devices volume and prevent a voice assistants response from being heard by the user before proceeding with further attacks. The speaker must be above a certain noise level to successfully allow an attack, Chen noted, while to wage a successful attack against voice assistant devices, the length of malicious commands must be below 77 milliseconds (or 0.77 seconds).

This is not only a software issue or malware. Its a hardware attack that uses the internet. The vulnerability is the nonlinearity of the microphone design, which the manufacturer would need to address, Chen said. Out of the 17 smart devices we tested, Apple Siri devices need to steal the users voice while other voice assistant devices can get activated by using any voice or a robot voice.

NUIT can silence Siris response to achieve an unnoticeable attack as the iPhones volume of the response and the volume of the media are separately controlled. With these vulnerabilities identified, Chen and team are offering potential lines of defense for consumers. Awareness is the best defense, the UTSA researcher says. Chen recommends users authenticate their voice assistants and exercise caution when they are clicking links and grant microphone permissions.

She also advises the use of earphones in lieu of speakers.

If you dont use the speaker to broadcast sound, youre less likely to get attacked by NUIT. Using earphones sets a limitation where the sound from earphones is too low to transmit to the microphone. If the microphone cannot receive the inaudible malicious command, the underlying voice assistant cant be maliciously activated by NUIT, Chen explained.

Research toward the development of NUIT was partially funded by a grant from the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administrations (NNSA) Minority Serving Institutions Partnership Program (MSIPP). The $5 million grant supports research by the Consortium On National Critical Infrastructure Security (CONCISE) and allows the creation of certification related to leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and block-chain technology to enhance critical infrastructure cybersecurity posture.

UTSA is a nationally recognized leader in cybersecurity. It is one of few colleges or universities in the nation and the only Hispanic Serving Institution to have three National Centers of Academic Excellence designations from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and National Security Agency.

Additionally, the university is home to five cybersecurity research centers and institutes the Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute, the National Security Collaboration Center, the Institute for Cyber Security, the Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security and the Cyber Center for Security and Analytics.

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Uncovering the unheard: Researchers reveal inaudible remote ... - UTSA

Citrus trees can be infected with the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa. Its genome was sequenced by a Brazilian team in 2000.Credit: Courtesy of Fundo de Defesa da Citricultura - FUNDECITRUS

Daniela Robles-Espinoza was a first-year undergraduate at the National Autonomous University of Mexicos (UNAMs) newly established Center for Genomic Sciences in Cuernavaca when she got a front-row seat to the dawn of genomics in her country.

The year was 2005. Scientists in Cuernavaca, nestled in the highlands 50 kilometres southwest of Mexico City, led a government-funded project to sequence the genome of Rhizobium etli, a bacterium that lives on the roots of some bean plants, helping them to fix nitrogen. Mirroring a Brazilian effort at the University of So Paulo to sequence the bacterial plant pathogen Xylella fastidiosa five years earlier, the project was an ambitious attempt to build up the countrys biotechnology infrastructure, providing Robles-Espinoza and her fellow students with an opportunity to watch cutting-edge genomics at first hand.

I had this perception that if you want to do good science, you have to go abroad, says Robles-Espinoza, who is now a group leader at UNAMs International Laboratory for Human Genome Research in Quertaro, 200 km northwest of Mexico City. It was kind of in the air that people want to leave. But I would say, not any more.

Two decades later, the sequencing of a bacterium no longer sounds like much of a milestone, but with a US$11.6-million grant from the So Paulo government, the projects leaders say the X. fastidiosa research received more state funding than any other single piece of Brazilian science. The Mexican project received $2 million, also a major investment. To scientists across South and Central America, these projects represented more than just a loosening of governmental purse strings. By funding Mexican and Brazilian scientists to sequence agriculturally important bacteria, which were significant to their own economies, the projects have helped to spark the regions biotech revolution.

The X. fastidiosa work created a network and a buzz within the So Paulo community. That was really important, says Lygia da Veiga Pereira, director of the National Laboratory for Embryonic Stem Cell Research at the University of So Paulo. The greatest impact was in making these tools more available not just sequencing but also molecular biology.

Collection: Young scientists

Both Mexico and Brazils initial, time-limited sequencing projects also helped to train a new generation of genomics researchers, says Rafael Palacios, one of the directors of the R. etli sequencing effort and coordinator of UNAMs International Laboratory for Human Genome Research. Mexico created a specialized undergraduate programme for future geneticists. And, in Brazil, the number of students earning masters- and doctoral-level degrees in science doubled between 2000 and 2008 (see go.nature.com/3rfim1e).

Yet without greater investment, those gains are in danger. Although some large institutes have secured sustainable funding, not all researchers are so lucky. Brazils former president Jair Bolsonaro repeatedly cut science funding during his administration; in 2021, Brazils science budget was 4.4 billion reais (US$852 million), compared with 14 billion reais in 2015, the countrys peak. Researchers hope that Brazils newly elected president, Luiz Incio Lula da Silva, who took office on 1 January, will reverse this trend. Mexico invests less than 1% of its gross domestic product in scientific research1 (compared with more than 3% in the United States and nearly 5% in Israel), and according to the World Bank, Mexico has just 327 scientists for every one million people (compared with 4,821 per million in the United States). Still, both Brazil and Mexico host small but vibrant biotech communities, says Palacios.

There are very good scientists doing very good genomics in Mexico, says Palacios. They are the ones that will change the image of Mexican genomics.

From his office in sprawling So Paulo, Fernando Reinach watched a revolution unfold.

By the mid-1990s, US and European researchers had begun making huge strides in genome sequencing first the laboratory bacterium Escherichia coli, then the nematode worm, the fruit fly and a flowering plant. At the same time, two international teams were racing to complete the human genome. As the biochemistry coordinator at the So Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), the scientific funding agency for the state of So Paulo, Reinach wanted to spark a revolution of his own. But this one would be completely Brazilian.

In these new areas where fields were booming, it was clear that Brazil was being left behind, says Reinach. There were just two to three people in Brazil who were able to sequence a genome.

Brazil election: Scientists cheer Lula victory over Bolsonaro

The country had geneticists and bioinformaticians, but most of them trained abroad and in many cases stayed there. Those who returned often collaborated on European or US projects rather than leading their own. Fuelled by optimism and a desire to prove his countrys scientific mettle on the global stage, in 1997 Reinach invited 191 scientists from across So Paulo to participate in the sequencing and analysis of the bacterium X. fastidiosa.

The bacterium causes citrus variegated chlorosis, a disease that has infected more than 100 million citrus trees in Brazil since 1987. Yet, although scientists had begun to tackle human-associated bacteria, no one had yet sequenced a plant pathogen. Previous work had shown that X. fastidiosa had a genome of 2.7 million base pairs. That placed it in the genomics Goldilocks zone: enough DNA to challenge scientists but small enough to be manageable.

Steven Lindow, a microbiologist at the University of California, Berkeley, recalls wondering about the projects expense. I knew it could be worthwhile, but it was also hideously expensive, he says. But in less than two years, the Brazilian team had sequenced, annotated and analysed the X. fastidiosa genome, on time and under budget. (It took a team of researchers five-and-a-half years to sequence E. coli2.) The resulting paper3 was published on 13 July 2000, just months after the human genome, and made the cover of Nature. Joo Carlos Setubal, a bioinformatics researcher at the University of So Paulo who co-led the project, says this might have been a first for Brazilian scientists.

The simple fact that a group of Brazilian scientists were able to organize a project, carry it out according to plan, and publish their results in one of the best scientific journals in the world those are things that back then almost never happened, Setubal says.

Joo Carlos Setubal is a bioinformatics researcher at the University of So Paulo, Brazil.Credit: Aldrey Olegario

Lindow says the project changed the field by providing key insights into the complex genomics and metabolism of pathogens such as X. fastidiosa, which have to survive both their plant host and an insect vector. The fact that such a discovery came from Brazilian scientists was a bonus, he says.

Before that genome, there were very few research papers from Brazil, adds Leonardo De La Fuente, a plant pathologist at Auburn University in Alabama, who was born in Uruguay. That motivated a lot of people to work more in biology.

Nearly 7,500 km north of So Paulo in Cuernavaca, Palacios was conscious that both genomic sequencing and computer science in South and Central America was lagging decades behind the United States and Europe.

After completing his PhD at UNAM in 1970, Palacios began a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University in California. Working abroad was a rite of passage for many Mexican scientists at the time, and his stint at Stanford opened his eyes to what scientists could accomplish with the right support. In 1974, Palacios returned to Mexico to dedicate his career not just to genomics, but also to improving his countrys scientific infrastructure to help mould the people that would be the future leaders of genomic sciences in Mexico.

Six years later, he was tapped to co-lead UNAMs Nitrogen Fixation Research Center in Cuernavaca. The institutes immediate goal was to learn more about Rhizobium. In 2000, Palacios team learnt that the R. etli genome was segmented, with one-third sitting on six large circular DNA molecules called plasmids4. This partitioning, Palacios and his colleagues reasoned, provided genetic and metabolic flexibility that enabled the species to survive a range of challenging environments.

Frustration builds over lengthy delay in revamping Mexicos science law

Still, by the early 2000s, no one had attempted to sequence the organism. Palacios and his colleague Guillermo Dvila, a genomics researcher at UNAM, proposed the project to Mexicos National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT), Mexicos equivalent of the US National Science Foundation, and in 2004, received a $2 million grant. Genomics laboratories across Mexico with appropriate expertise could apply to receive a state-of-the-art DNA sequencer with no restrictions on how it was to be used. The scientists would repay the equipment cost by sequencing a certain number of bases of the R. etli genome.

Published in 2006, the completed R. etli sequence revealed the complex arrangement of genes that were needed for nitrogen-fixing bacteria to convert an inert gas into usable nutrients5. But the masterpiece for Palacios and Dvila was the establishment of a four-year undergraduate degree in genomics at UNAM in 2003, which is taught at its Center for Genomic Sciences. From day one, the students would be immersed in a hands-on, research-intensive course on everything from genetics and molecular biology to statistics and computer science. A small cohort of students were admitted each year, but Palacios wanted the programme to educate Mexicos future genomics leaders. More than three-quarters of its graduates totalling nearly 300 so far are now developing their careers in Mexico, after some moved abroad to gain experience after graduating.

Robles-Espinoza was one of the first students to be enrolled in the UNAM programme. It was very exciting as a young student to see that all of these breakthroughs can happen around me, she says about the genome sequencing she saw in her home country. Its like, I can do this, too!

Some of the worlds leading geneticists gave talks to the students, she says, and after a research trip to the United Kingdom in 2009, when Robles-Espinoza began to work in the field of cancer genetics, she gained a doctorate position at the University of Cambridge, UK, and graduated in February 2015. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship, Robles-Espinoza returned to Mexico as a junior researcher at Palacios newest facility, UNAMs International Laboratory for Human Genome Research.

Her work now focuses on a type of melanoma that has long been overlooked by US and European scientists. Known as acral lentiginous melanoma, the cancer comprises only a few percent of melanoma cases in people of European descent but is much more common in darker-skinned populations, including those in Mexico. Because the cancer is common locally, she has ready access to patient samples. She has also teamed up with scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

In many cases, the priorities of a project are set by the countries who are leading it, says Robles-Espinoza. Although Mexican scientists frequently collaborated with colleagues around the world, they werent the ones setting the agenda, nor were they receiving investments in training and infrastructure. It was important to see that you can not only participate in what others are doing, you can lead and direct it.

Daniela Robles-Espinoza (right) studies genetic predisposition to skin cancer.Credit: Jess Ren Wong

One of Robles-Espinozas classmates, Maria Gutierrez-Arcelus, also credits the UNAM programme with her career trajectory. An immunogeneticist at Boston Childrens Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, Gutierrez-Arcelus studies the genomic contributions to autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus, asthma and arthritis. Other alumni study everything from ancient DNA to plant breeding, she says.

The [sequencing] project has really promoted genomics in Mexico, and I think a lot of credit should go to Dr Palacios for having that vision, Gutierrez-Arcelus says.

Indeed, both the Brazilian and Mexican teams say that their greatest impact was in inspiring young scientists. Of the X. fastidiosa project, Setubal says, It was very clear that the project was to be a platform on which researchers in So Paulo would get up to speed on genome sequencing technology.

And that impact extends far beyond Mexico and Brazil. As a young graduate student at the University of Chile in Santiago in the mid-2000s, Alvaro Lladser often questioned his ability to do groundbreaking science in his home country. A three-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Karolinska Institute working on cancer vaccines reinforced his doubts.

The current technology is always more advanced abroad than at home. Were always a little bit behind, he says.

Lladsers work depends on single-cell sequencing, a technology that wasnt readily available when he returned to Chile in 2010 to study the tumour microenvironment at the Science and Life Foundation in Santiago. But his knowledge of what the Mexican and Brazilian teams did during the previous decade told him that he could help to build this type of capacity in Chile. He has focused on the countrys genome analytics capacity in areas such as single-cell RNA sequencing by hosting courses for fellow Chilean scientists.

The new generation of scientists who trained on these early sequencing projects are helping Pereira to run a biotech start-up called gen-t, which she launched in 2021. The goal of gen-t is to provide researchers from pharmaceutical companies and academia with the as-yet-unsequenced genetic diversity in Brazils population. Historically, other nations have plundered Brazils natural resources, which has made it hard for Brazilians to benefit from their own biodiversity. Pereira hopes gen-t will help Brazilians to share the profit from their genomic diversity, and like Robles-Espinoza, help to develop biomedical solutions for the countrys heterogeneous population, which includes people of European, African and Native American descent. Less than 1% of all genomic data includes people from Central or South America6. The value of gen-ts goal is reflected in the funding it secured in 2021, valued at 10 million reais.

NatureTech hub

This is an opportunity because Brazil has something to offer the world in our genetic diversity, Pereira says.

Today, however, funding and political realities have taken some of the shine off Setubals and Palacios original ideals. Palacios says that even if he could find the money for a one-off biotech moonshot project like he did in the early 2000s, without continued government investment, Mexicos biotech community is at risk of floundering. Nor does Brazil have enough professorships and other permanent positions to keep its best and brightest researchers in the country, say Reinach and Setubal, and job opportunities and more lucrative funding elsewhere in the world have made it hard to keep the talent that they train. Its one of the reasons Gutierrez-Arcelus says she has remained in Boston rather than returning home.

Its important to be able to study all populations in the world. Having genomics well developed in Mexico can really benefit both Mexicans and the rest of the world, she says.

The sequencing of X. fastidiosa and R. etli showed the world just how much scientists in South and Central America could achieve with proper funding. The regions political will to build on those early investments will determine how well future generations can maintain the progress that has already been made.

Young people are the future, says Palacios.

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How Latin America's genomics revolution began and why the ... - Nature.com

Doctoral Candidate Paulina Haduong has had an on-again, off-again relationship with coding.

It began organically, with informal, self-taught website building. Growing up, theyhelped theirparents run the website for their small business. It was fun, low-stakes, and entirely separate from theirformal academic life. Things changed when Haduongtook theirfirst computer science (CS) course as an undergraduate student.

The first computer science class I took was such a demoralizing experience that I dropped it, Haduong says. It was really isolating and really confusing. It was very much lecture-based, in this giant class, so computer science became a thing where I thought, OK, I'm just not good at this thing, Im not going todo it.

Despite this experience, Haduong gave CS another chance. The next course theytook was completely different, for the better: Itwas structured in a way to help people learn together. With every assignment, students were able to work with as many people as wewanted, as long as we credited each other, Haduong says. That experience really stuck with me, being able to work on projects with other people and work through the frustrations of learning to program. That has really carried me to what I ended up doing in the master's program when I came to [HGSE] for the first time, and how I ended up in research afterwards.

As a Ph.D. student at HGSE, Haduong conducts research that seeks to understand the challenges that K12 teachers and students face in learning computing together, and how supports can be designed and implemented to meet those challenges.

Here, Haduong discusses their dissertation research, the importance of teaching technology in schools, and theirhopes for the future.

Tell me about your work at the Creative Computing Lab with Professor Karen Brennan.

There are many programming languages in the world, and there are many that are designed for young learners. The one that we mainly work with is called Scratch. Scratch is both a programming language and an online community for kids, which is really cool, because they can make projects and then they can share those projects and connect with other kids online.

There are many reasons that people put forward for why we should learn to code or why everyone should learn to code. The reason I ammost excited about is for young people to be able to learn to creatively express themselves through code. This form of creative expression can help young people get their ideas out in the world and can help them learn to participate in our technologically mediated society.

You wrote an article, I Like Computers, I Hate Coding, which touched upon how learning CS can sometimes be demoralizing. How does your work try to counter that feeling for learners?

Learning to program, for many people, is really frustrating. You're trying to create something, and it's a process of getting stuck and also getting unstuck. So you're encountering bugs, you're trying to figure out what to make and how to make it.

When learners don't have sufficient support, that frustration can affect their identities as computer programmers it's not justI'm not able to make this thing, but I'm bad at computer programming. I'm the problem. We want to shift that to help learners understand that they might notknow how to do something yet. Also, other people can help them achieve their goals.

In that particular project [I wrote about], young people were saying, I use technology all the time. I use computers all the time. I love my computer, I use it to access the internet, but coding itself is a boring and frustrating subject for me. We hope to create opportunities for kids to realize that they can use [coding] to make anything they want, and hopefully that will be something that's exciting to them.

How does your dissertation research look at those frustrations?

People are really excited about computing education, and we're excited to create more opportunities for it. Students, sometimes, have these frustrating experiences with it. Teachers are also being asked to teach computing, even though they haven't necessarily been given enough resources and enough professional learning to support them in feeling like they can teach the way that they might want to teach.

My hope is that with this dissertation work, we can create more opportunities for teachers and students to build creative communities, and to support one another.

What does that work look like?

All of this work in my dissertation is happening within the context of Getting Unstuck, which is a design-based research project. Over the last several years, we've been working with elementary school teachers at Title I and rural schools all over the United States to collaboratively design a computing curriculum that helps students create projects that only have one creative constraint. So, each project must use a specific programming concept, butwhat students want to make is entirely up to them.

This is partly a response to teachers saying, I want kids to make things that are personally meaningful, but how do I make sure that they're actually learning anything? That's why we have this programming concept that they have to try to incorporate into their project. This design-based research project encourages students and teachers to develop a collaborative studio culture to learning to program. So, we are trying to use this creative computing design studioframework of helping students explore, create, share, and reflect on their computational creations.

In [one paper of the dissertation], I look more closely at a single classroom from the curriculum pilot. We've built this curriculum, we've helped all these teachers learn to use the curriculum, but what is actually happening in the classroom when teachers and students use the curriculum together?

I worked with this one teacher and her fourth-grade students, which was delightful, for four months, and looked at the different activities that they engaged in that enabled them to learn collaboratively.For example, some students had a lot of success in re-mixing other people's projects and reusing other people's ideas. Other students really struggled with that; they saw things that they were excited about, but they couldn't quite figure out how to incorporate that into their own projects.

This teacher just did a really wonderful job of creating space for students to talk about their work and share their vulnerabilities. There were moments where the teacher would ask about highs and lows, and students would share, My high is, I've made progress on my project and My low is that I don't feel great about my project. Then, she would ask, Who else doesn't feel great about the project? Just creating space for students to see that other students felt the same way went a long way towards helping students feel excited about computing and realizing that they werent alone in the challenges they encountered. It wasn't that students were bad at programming. Its that learning to program by creating projects is a hard thing that we're trying to do.

Are you trying to promote the teaching of computer science in early education or elementary schools, or is that shift happening independently?

That's a good question.Access to computing education is not tracked super well at the elementary school level. How much computer science is happening is tracked better at the high school level how many AP courses are happening, for example. We know that a lot of teachers and elementary schools are trying to include computer science, but we dont know a lot about what that looks like across the U.S.

"People are really excited about computing education, and we're excited to create more opportunities for it."

The other specific thing that we're trying to address with the Getting Unstuck curriculum is to create more of an intermediate, bridging experience. There are a lot of wonderful curricula and resourcesthat help students try computing for the first time and there are well-developed sequences for high school computing education, [but] there isn't a lot of support for learners in-between those two stages. What happens after you can make that first project? How can you keep working on learning to program before you enter one of these high school courses?

This curriculum is also designed to fill some of that gap, which is why it's designed for upper elementary grades. It's not meant to be a student's first experience learning to program, but it can also be, if needed.

What are your next steps with this work?

One thing that I'm excited about doing next is spending more time with kids. This wasnt really possible before because I didthe data collection during the pandemic. When we think about creating opportunities for learners to create things that they care about, it would be helpful to know more about what they are actually interested in. So, being able to take a closer look at what kids are making, what kids are thinking about what they're making, and what kinds of frustrations kids are encountering between what they want to make and what they're actually currently able to make within the time constraints of school.

For example, there was a student who made this beautiful project about a blue wolf on Scratch. It had these pictures of wolves and then this long narrative that she did a voiceover for. You look at this project, and you think, Okay, so this girl must like wolves. That's cool. But when I actually had a chanceto talk to her about her project and asked, Why did you make what you made? she talked about how this was a story she had made up for her little sister.

She had been telling some version of the story to her little sister for two years. She decided to record this story for hersister and to make this project and share this with other people. You can learnsome things about the project creator and her motivationfrom interacting with the project itself, but you can't learnall of these other things, about how her story has evolved, who she made it for, and why. That was just one student, with one project, that I was able to talk to for 20 minutes. So, I would love to talk to more kids about what they've made.

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Computing with Creativity | Harvard Graduate School of Education - Harvard Graduate School of Education

What is a computer worm? It is a type of malware that can cause significant damage to computer systems and networks by replicating itself and spreading autonomously. With the rise of technology and the increasing dependence on computers for everyday tasks, cybersecurity has become more critical than ever before.

In a world where cyber threats are evolving and becoming more sophisticated, it is essential to have effective cybersecurity measures in place to protect against the threat of computer worms and other types of malware. In this article, we will explore the world of computer worms, the damage they can cause, and the strategies that individuals and organizations can use to prevent, detect, and remove these threats.

A computer worm is a type of malware that replicates itself and spreads throughout a computer network without the need for a host program or user interaction. It works by exploiting vulnerabilities in the operating system or other software on the target machine to gain access and create copies of itself. Worms can quickly spread to other devices connected to the same network, causing widespread damage and disrupting normal operations.

In computer science, the term worm stands for Write Once, Read Many. This term refers to a type of data storage device that can be written only once but read many times. The term worm was first used in the 1970s to describe early forms of optical storage media that used lasers to etch data onto the surface of a disk. These disks could be read many times but could not be modified once the data had been written.

However, in the context of computer security, the term worm is used to refer to a self-replicating malware program that spreads through a network, as described in the previous section. The term is used to describe the way in which the malware worms its way through a network, infecting as many devices as possible.

A computer worm typically works in the following way:

Some key characteristics of computer worms include:

While computer worms and viruses are both types of malware, there are some key differences between the two. Here is a summary table comparing the two:

Here are some examples of famous computer worms:

These examples illustrate the significant impact that computer worms can have on computer systems and networks, as well as the need for effective cybersecurity measures to prevent and mitigate these threats.

Computer worms can cause significant damage to computer systems and networks, as well as the data and information they contain. Here are some key impacts of computer worms:

Computer worms can affect a wide range of systems and data, including:

The costs associated with worm attacks can be significant and include the following:

Computer worms can have a significant impact on computer systems and networks, causing damage to data, applications, and networks, as well as financial and other costs to organizations that fall victim to these attacks. It is therefore essential for individuals and organizations to implement effective cybersecurity measures to prevent and mitigate the damage caused by computer worms.

Preventing computer worms requires a multi-layered approach that includes both technical and behavioral measures. Here are some key strategies for preventing computer worms:

Anti-virus software is a key tool in preventing computer worms. It can detect and remove known worms, as well as other types of malware, before they can cause damage. Some key features of anti-virus software include:

Cyberpsychology: The psychological underpinnings of cybersecurity risks

Firewalls are another important tool in preventing computer worms. A firewall is a network security system that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules. Some key features of firewall protection include:

In addition to technical measures, there are also several best practices that individuals and organizations can follow to protect against computer worms:

Keeping software and operating systems up to date is critical in preventing computer worms. This is because worms often exploit vulnerabilities in software to gain access to computer systems and networks. By regularly updating software and operating systems with the latest security patches and updates, individuals and organizations can ensure that known vulnerabilities are patched and protected against. This can significantly reduce the risk of infection from computer worms and other types of malware.

Preventing computer worms requires a multi-layered approach that includes technical measures such as anti-virus software and firewall protection, as well as behavioral measures such as following best practices and keeping the software and operating systems up to date with the latest security patches and updates. By implementing these strategies, individuals and organizations can significantly reduce the risk of infection from computer worms and other types of malware.

Detecting and removing computer worms can be challenging, as worms are often designed to evade detection and spread quickly throughout a network. Here are some key strategies for detecting and removing computer worms:

Some common symptoms of a computer worm attack include:

If you suspect that your computer has been infected with a worm, it is important to take immediate action to prevent further damage. Here are some steps you can take:

Here are some common tools and techniques that can be used to detect and remove computer worms:

Detecting and removing computer worms requires a combination of tools and techniques, including anti-virus software, firewall protection, malware scanners, rootkit detection tools, and system restore. It is important to be aware of the symptoms of a worm attack and to take immediate action to prevent further damage. By following best practices for cybersecurity and staying vigilant, individuals and organizations can help protect against the threat of computer worms and other types of malware.

Here are five examples of famous computer worms:

Back to our original question: What is a computer worm? Well, a computer worm is a type of malware that can spread rapidly through computer systems and networks, causing significant damage to data and systems.

As we have seen, computer worms can be difficult to detect and remove, and they can cause a range of problems, from data loss to network disruptions. The best way to protect against computer worms is to implement a multi-layered approach that includes technical measures such as anti-virus software and firewalls, as well as behavioral measures such as following best practices and staying vigilant.

By keeping software and systems up to date and being aware of the latest threats and trends in computer worm attacks, individuals and organizations can help to prevent, detect, and mitigate the damage caused by these malicious programs. In the end, it all comes down to effective cybersecurity practices and the constant need to stay one step ahead of the ever-evolving threat of computer worms and other types of malware.

Yes, computer worms can be harmful. A computer worm is a type of malware that spreads copies of itself from computer to computer, often using the internet or other computer networks. Worms can consume bandwidth and system resources, causing computers to slow down or crash. In addition, some worms may be designed to carry out malicious actions, such as stealing sensitive information or damaging computer systems.

Generally speaking, worms are faster than viruses because they are self-replicating and can spread quickly through a network without the need for human intervention. Viruses, on the other hand, need to be attached to a file or program in order to spread, which can slow down the replication process.

The phishing email detection tool can help users avoid cyber-attacks

Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts files on a computer or network, rendering them inaccessible to the user. The attacker then demands payment, typically in the form of cryptocurrency, in exchange for providing the decryption key to restore access to the files. Ransomware attacks can be devastating to individuals and organizations, as they can result in the loss of important data and financial resources.

Phishing is a type of social engineering attack that involves tricking individuals into divulging sensitive information, such as passwords or credit card numbers, by posing as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication, such as an email or text message. Phishing attacks can be difficult to detect, as they often use convincing-looking logos and branding to appear legitimate. It is important to be cautious when receiving unexpected electronic messages and to verify the authenticity of any requests for sensitive information.

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What Is A Computer Worm: Examples And More - Dataconomy