STC Kicked-Off the Spring Quarter with a Bang!

This past Monday, CityU proudly hosted the NICE Local Stakeholder’s Pre-Conference event in advance of the June 5-7th NICE Conference at the Westin Hotel. Over 58 representatives from industry, government, and military and representatives from academia came together to discuss the hiring needs, challenges, and opportunities faced by businesses. A panel of five, Tina Romeo, Microsoft, Katie Geraghty, Boeing, John Yeoh, Cloud Security, MAJ Sameer Puri, Washington National Guard, and Dr. Zoe Fowler, Norwich University, shared personal and professional insights. The full panel conversation is available here. I encourage every student and the entire CityU community to listen to what these industry experts are saying.

I listened, and here are a few observations:

CityU’s STC is leading the way integrating cloud technology into our courses. A decade ago, the viability of cloud technology was being debated. Experts questioned if this thing called “cloud computing” would last. Today, it’s which cloud provide does your company use. Seattle, Washington contains several cloud providers including Amazon (AWS), Microsoft (Azure), and Google Cloud. In addition, there is also an active Seattle chapter for the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA). Please note, STC is integrating cloud platforms into our courses. “Professional Skills” were in-demand by employers. Team projects, a consistent activity in STC courses, are not always popular. It’s challenging to work on team projects, but, it simulates reality. At STC your grade is heavily dependent upon your team project. On-the-job, your job viability and upward mobility depends heavily upon your collaboration and communication skills.

CityU is attuned to market demands of a workforce in transition. The panel pointed out seasoned workers are re-training and entering cybersecurity. Forty-five percent of STC’s MSCY students are over forty years old, while fifty percent of students are between the ages of thirty to thirty-nine. CityU continues to be aligned with finding cybersecurity and technology talent.

Rather than summarize the entire 90-minute panel, invest your time and hear about the challenges and opportunities and possible solutions awaiting you.

Note: June 5th – 7th the NICE Conference organizers need students to assist with staffing the registration and customer service desk. Student volunteers from CityU are requested. While volunteers will work, they will also be given the opportunity to select key sessions of interest to attend. While I don’t have a formal process in place yet, if you are interested send your up-to-date resume to:

C4CYI@cityu.edu. SUBJECT: Student Volunteer for NICE.

Presently, we recommend local students consider applying as no dormitory rooms are presently available for this conference.