The Underrepresentation of Black Females in Cybersecurity

The significance of cybersecurity methods, strategies, and programs in protecting computers and electronic devices is crucial throughout the technological infrastructure. Despite the considerable growth in the cybersecurity field and its expansive workforce, there exists a notable underrepresentation, specifically among Black/African American females. This study examines the barriers hindering the inclusion of Black women in the cybersecurity workforce such as socioeconomic factors, limited educational access, biases, and workplace culture. The urgency of addressing these challenges calls for solutions such as education programs, mentorship initiatives, creating inclusive workplace environments, and promoting advocacy and increased awareness within the cybersecurity field. Additionally, this paper also features insightful interviews with successful Black female cybersecurity professionals, providing real-world perspectives and valuable advice. While strides have been made in acknowledging obstacles and implementing solutions, the representation gap for Black/African American women in cybersecurity persists, underscoring the need for further research in this area. Ultimately, this study encourages collaborative efforts to dismantle barriers and foster inclusivity, ensuring a more diverse and innovative cybersecurity sector

Some Comments on the Crisis in Engineering and Engineering Technology Education

The maintenance of a high-quality technological base in the United States is dependent upon adequately funded engineering programs in American colleges and universities. At the current time, many American engineering educators feel that their academic programs are in a state of crisis with respect to adequacy of resources. A number of foundations associated with large American companies (Exxon, IBM, Amoco, and others) have provided funds designed to aid engineering education. Funded programs at the national level have been proposed in Congress. At the present time, the current level of funding is still inadequate. It will take a national technological crisis to improve this situation

Some Comments on the Crisis in Engineering and Engineering Technology Education

The maintenance of a high-quality technological base in the United States is dependent upon adequately funded engineering programs in American colleges and universities. At the current time, many American engineering educators feel that their academic programs are in a state of crisis with respect to adequacy of resources. A number of foundations associated with large American companies (Exxon, IBM, Amoco, and others) have provided funds designed to aid engineering education. Funded programs at the national level have been proposed in Congress. At the present time, the current level of funding is still inadequate. It will take a national technological crisis to improve this situation

Training Pilots or Educating Captains? A Framework for Collegiate Ab Initio Programs

During the past five years, several studies have been conducted to assess the future availability of airline pilots and other aviation professionals (McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Co., 1989; Sypher-Mueller International, 1992; U.S. Department of Defense, 1988; U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration [FAA], 1993). These studies conclude, not surprisingly, that the traditional sources of airline pilots-the military and general aviation-are in a period of decline. This situation, coupled with the predicted flood of airline pilot retirements, will lead to a shortage of pilots before the end of the decade. Although estimates vary, most suggest that the current excess of pilots will be absorbed by 1996

How to Connect the Americas: An IS/IT Academic Research Plan for Tomorrow

During the last decade we have engaged in several heretofore separate and at least initially, somewhat independent research initiatives: 1) Virtual teams and collaborative technologies [Ballantine, Becker, et. al.; 1999], [Becker, Ballantine, et. al., 1999, 2001], [Becker; 2003], [Becker and Cline; 2005]; 2) building bridges between researches across the borders of the Americas [Becker and Sanchez; 2006, 2007, and 2008]; and 3) analyzing the dramatic and alarming declines in IS/IT majors [Becker, Hassan, and Naumann, 2006]. Within the last few years we have come to discover that these research streams appear to be converging in a welcome and pleasantly synergistic manner. When combined these research streams result in an action plan to utilize a combination of virtual collaborative technologies and face-to-face interactions with faculty and students throughout the Americas to increase the number of IS/IT majors at all educational levels: undergraduate, masters and doctoral degrees. This paper describes what brought us to this epiphany and my plan for the next year-long phase of this study, which will commence in summer 2009 for this author. A partial list of the planned activities, objectives and metrics are shown in Appendix

Information Systems Enrollments: Can They Be Increased?

It is almost unbelievable that in this age of technology we are experiencing decreasing worldwide enrollments in Information Systems (IS) programs. Suddenly, within a year or two, enrollments decreased as much as 70-80 percent throughout the world. Industry is begging for more graduates with a business and technical background and is expecting an even greater shortage in the next few years. Despite reports of the outsourcing of technical positions, there is a growing demand for IS graduates. This paper presents an overview of the discussion, resulting from a panel at the Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) 2007, of declining enrollments and some suggestions to reverse the trend. Two major themes, marketing and curriculum, emerged

Changing corporate strategies in a period of crisis: high technology multinational corporations in Scotland

The dissertation proposes that the economics of the crisis of capital accumulation and the extraordinary pace of technological and market change have led to new corporate strategies and industry structures in the high tech electronics industry. The research, survey of management in fourteen leading computer and semiconductor multinationals, was designed to integrate and explore the usefulness of theories on industrial structure and labour markets. The product life cycle model cannot solve the problems of diversified and increasingly competitive global markets and their ever more sophisticated demand for customised products. Similarly rigid barriers between differentiated and non-competing labour markets in dual labour market theory cannot account for new associations of labour and technologies or for the new importance of non-wage differences in global labour supplies. The research demonstrated the necessity of linking both demand and supply conditions in explaining contemporary industrial structure. The data persuasively supports the view that the supply conditions in local labour markets not only are critical to the global distribution of capital, but more importantly shape those investments. Scotland provided the industry with an annual labour supply and appropriate skills and a training/education sector responsive to industry needs, offering unique ways for corporations to minimise the cost of reshaping and retaining their workforce. Combining with significant state support of capital investment, the region provided cost - and risk-minimising opportunities for using expensive advanced technologies, expanding and extending their effectiveness in rapidly changing markets. Further, gender was a major factor in the emergence structure of work and the speed of industry adjustment. Rising male unemployment, shrinking employment vacancies for men, and the support of the region's women worker led to the industry's hiring men as the new production workforce, allowing new job design, recruitment criteria, employment expectations and worker commitment, necessary to increase the productivity of new investments

A STUDY OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE PETROLEUM ENGINEERING SPECIALIZATION CURRICULUM OFFERED BY THE MECHANICAL ENGINEERING PROGRAM AT UNIVERSITY TECHNOLOGY PETRONAS

Tertiary education in Malaysia has become a subject of great importance and concern to both its people and the government. Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, or UTP, which is wholly owned by the national oil and gas corporation PETRONAS, is one such tertiary institution <hat has emerged in response to the growing demand for higher education in the country. Under the mechanical and chemical engineering programs of UTP, undergraduate students are offered a petroleum specialization stream, for those interested in the study of petroleum or inclined to pursue a career in the oil and gas industry, which is undoubtedly one of the biggest sectors of the Malaysian economy. The motivation for offering petroleum education at UTP and the effectiveness of UTP's petroleum program and courses are the principal areas of concern of this paper. A discourse will first be presented on the progress of Malaysia's tertiary education leading to the founding of UTP, on the university's education system and its overall undergraduate engineering programme. Then, the following three aspects to the rationale for having a petroleum specialization elective at UTP are deliberated. The first aspect concerns UTP's main motivation for offering education on petroleum engineering- why petroleum engineering is taught at UTP, considering it is not a conventional field of study at the undergraduate level. The second relates to the advantages and effectiveness of offering petroleum education as a specialized stream under the mechanical engineering program', as opposed to conferring a full petroleum engineering degree. The third aspect of the issue of UTP's petroleum education discussed in this paper is the apportioning of the study of petroleum under mechanical and chemical engineering programs. The effectiveness of UTP's petroleum curriculum, in preparing its mechanical engineering graduates for the oil and gas industry, is investigated. For this, the * The scope of discussion of this paper centers on the mechanical engineering program's petroleum specialization stream. Thus, when a specific program evaluation is presented, the petroleum elective stream under chemical or civil engineering will not be discussed in this paper. MOGE Project 2002 MohJ Taib, Page 6 of 59 educational process flow within the mechanical engineering program is examined to determine the program's strength and weaknesses in preparing its students for the finalyear petroleum specialization courses. The suitability ofUTP's petroleum elective courses are also discussed, along the lines of adequacy to impart maximum benefit to students who will be embarking on a career in the petroleum industry. Due to their relevancy, monologues on the Malaysian oil and gas industry and the significance of petroleum education for the local industry are presented, to reflect on the industry's current and future requirements for skills and knowledge of its workforce. For comparison and for assessing the appropriateness of UTP' s petroleum program, this paper briefly discusses similar programs offered by other universities. In the final evaluation, issues of quality assessment and academic accreditation are delved into, capped up by a review of the strengths of UTP' s petroleum program and some recommendations for improving the program's courses

The crisis in American education: The impact on vocational education

This thesis is an interpretation and evaluation of the problems in the American education system which is failing American citizens by annually producing thousands of illiterates. Moreover, schools are failing to provide an adequate number of skilled workers for government, the military, and business and industry, and that trend will continue unless a drastic restructuring of the entire school system takes place; The paper examines reports on the crisis in education, reviews problems of illiteracy and the impact on technical skills, details concerns of the military, business and industry, and interested individuals regarding the quality of education in the U.S. Current efforts to solve the problem of mediocrity in education are considered, focusing on vocational education programs. Finally, the paper addresses issues of ethics involved in the failure to provide America\u27s youth a quality education, and assesses the American work ethic

Training theories and practices and their applications in the Libyan oil industry

The purpose of this study is to describe, analyse and evaluate the problem of shortage of well-qualified and trained personnel in the Libyan Oil Industry and to examine training policies, practices and programmes currently provided by this highly valued industry. The major goal of this study was to identify the necessary steps to be taken in order to improve the training and development programmes in this industry.A review is presented of literature on the nature and importance of training; how training can be conducted effectively; what kind of techniques should be followed to set up proper systematic training programmes; and criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of training and development programmes. The policies and practices of training currently in use in the Libyan Oil Industry are investigated, as are the current general education and training system in Libya and the role of Libyan universities and other higher education institutions.A questionnaire was applied to a sample of 101 trainees sent by the Libyan Oil Industry on training to the U.K. respondents represented different companies and projects and various fields of specialisation. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the raw data obtained from the questionnaire responses.The results of the study indicated the following:1. A master plan for organising and supervising training programmes is needed.2. Training programmes should be designed after identifying training needs.3. Training should be in job related.4. Trainees should work in the area in which they received training.5. Top management should receive training in their major activities and responsibilities.6. Training should be provided for all employees.7. Training programmes should be evaluated regularly.8. Co-ordination and collaboration should be made between industry and the university in regard to manpower training and development.9. Training policies should be periodically reviewed.10. Training should be considered as a continuous process