The University of North Georgia is designated by the NSA as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education (CAE-CDE).

The University of North Georgia (UNG) recently earned designation as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CDE).

The designation is from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the National Security Agency (NSA) who jointly sponsor the National Centers of Academic Excellence (CAE) program. Universities are designated based on their robust degree programs and close alignment to specific cybersecurity-related knowledge units, pilule validated by subject matter experts in the field. CAE graduates help protect national security information systems, prescription commercial networks, and critical information infrastructure in the private and public sectors.

In January, UNG launched the Center for Cyber Operations Education to plan, coordinate and support cyber education in the university’s 30-county service region.

“Our institution is well on its way to becoming a national leader in cybersecurity education,” said Dr. Bonita Jacobs, president of UNG. “Being recognized alongside other elite universities heightens our academic reputation and validates that our cyber education initiatives meet the highest national standards.”

Read the full story at https://ung.edu/news/articles/2016/05/ung-cited-as-a-national-leader-in-cyber-security-education.php

Register for my FREE O’Reilly Webcast, TOMORROW (Thu, 8/13) from 1-2ET (10-11PT).

There’s still time! Register now for my FREE O’Reilly Webinar, “Teach Your Kids to Code: Basic concepts with Turtle graphics in Python”, LIVE tomorrow, Thursday, August 13, 2015, from 10-11am Pacific Time (1-2pm Eastern).

You can register for free at https://www.oreilly.com/pub/e/3422 – I’ll be demonstrating how you can teach (and learn) basic programming concepts likes variables, loops and functions using Turtle graphics in Python, with examples straight from my book and Udemy course, with a few bonuses added in.

Turtle graphics have been teaching kids basic coding concepts since the late 1960’s. The Turtle module in Python carries the turtle tradition into the 21st century and makes turtle programming easy and accessible on Windows, Mac, Linux and more.

Turtle graphics in Python are a great way to introduce kids to coding, staring with short programs of just five to ten lines of code that draw beautiful, colorful shapes that kids can create and modify as they learn. I’ll be sharing some of the turtle basics I began teaching my own sons when they were two and four years old, all the way through fully interactive elements I teach in freshman-level college courses.

In this webcast, you will learn:

• How to code turtle graphics in Python
• How to engage children from pre-K through college with short, interactive, visual programs for every age level
• How to build on more advanced programming concepts using turtle graphics as a foundation

Register at https://www.oreilly.com/pub/e/3422, then tune in LIVE tomorrow from 1-2 Eastern (10-11 am Pacific)! Happy coding!

Check out Meme Smasher by my student, Dan McWilliams, in the App Store!

Wow! I’ve got 62 students in two sections of Mobile App Development this semester at UNG, the most popular computer science elective we’ve ever offered! We’re programming apps in Android and iOS, and having a blast! It’s so popular, we’ve added a new Minor in Mobile App Development that starts this Fall 2014 – CSCI 1301/1302 (Java I/II) plus CSCI 3660 (Mobile App Dev), CSCI 3000 (Web Programming), and any CS 3000/4000 elective course, and you’ve got a Minor in Mobile App Development!

I’ve even had students submit their apps to the App Store and Google Play, while the semester’s still going – check out Dan McWilliams’ RNGuess (a random number guessing game we built as a project in CSCI 3660) for Android in Google Play at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.danielmcwilliams.rnguess and his THREE awesome apps, RNGuess, Slippy Car, and Meme Smasher for iOS in the App Store at https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/daniel-mcwilliams/id812807320 , and I’ll post updates as other students submit their apps.

This semester, we’re programming native apps in both Java, using Eclipse with Android ADT [https://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html], on the Android platform, and in Objective-C using Xcode 5 [https://developer.apple.com/] on the iOS platform. Both are free to download, install and use (although you have to have a Mac to use Xcode), have a wealth of online tutorials, and are the tools that professionals use to develop apps every day.

I can’t wait to see everything these 60+ students will create as we go through their term projects – updates to come!

Update: William Stowers is updating the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests app – click here for the Android version

1983 North Georgia College undergraduate catalog, the first year the Bachelor of Science in Computer Science was offered

This semester marks the 30th anniversary of the bachelor’s degree program in computer science at North Georgia. In September of 1983, the Department of Mathematics became the Department of Mathematics & Computer Science at North Georgia College, offering a bachelor of science degree in computer science at a time when few universities offered complete degree programs in computing.

Dr. Phil Buckhiester was department head, and tuition and fees for a three-month term totaled a whopping $308, plus another $3 a quarter if you registered a vehicle on campus. Room and board added another $502 per semester if you lived in the dorms.

Digging back even further into the history of computing at North Georgia with the generous help of longtime friend and colleague Jeanette Mann, now with Distance Education and Technology Integration at UNG’s Gainesville campus, we found the first programming courses were offered 45 years ago, and the CS minor began 35 years ago:

• First two computer science courses taught in 1968 by Dr. Marion C. Wicht, Department Head of Mathematics: https://archive.org/stream/northgeorgiacoll1968nort#page/118
• Minor in CS in 1978: https://archive.org/stream/northgeorgiacoll1978nort#page/130
• Department of Mathematics & Computer Science in 1983, CS Bachelor’s degree: https://archive.org/stream/northgeorgiacoll1983nort#page/130

The first seven computer science majors graduated in the spring of 1984, and over the following three decades, more than 340 computer science and information systems alumni would follow in their footsteps. Our graduates have gone on to exciting and rewarding careers at IBM, Adobe, AT&T, Equifax, Blizzard Entertainment, CareerBuilder.com, ADP, HP, MetLife, Norfolk Southern, UPS, the US Army, and in countless other industries and government, non-profit, and educational organizations worldwide.

Thirty years later, the University of North Georgia created the Department of Computer Science as part of the university’s consolidation restructuring. A semester’s tuition and fees total $3,346 for a regular 15-hour load, a far cry from the 1983 price, but still one of the best values in the University System.

With a combined total of more than 425 computer science, information systems, and technology management majors, there’s never been a better time to begin a career in information technology and computer science. USA Today cites over 8 million high-tech jobs are expected to be created over the next five years alone.

I am honored to serve as the first department head of the new Department of Computer Science at the University of North Georgia, building on a 30-year tradition of excellence. Check out the great things our students and alumni are doing at https://ung.edu/cs !

1983 Undergraduate Catalog entry for the Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science at North Georgia College

Anant Agarwal, co-founder of EdX, the MOOC started by MIT and Harvard, shared in an interview this week that the “sweet spot” of MOOCs may be in augmenting, not necessarily replacing, traditional university courses. In fact, in a single course at SJSU, the failure rate dropped from 40% to 9% in a highly difficult electronic circuits course:

“If you combine online with in-person, you get the best of both worlds. You don’t have to drag students to a lecture at 8 am, they can learn at their own pace. Yet they can still get in-person help from the professor when they come to class. This type of model can be very successful. When our blended circuits and electronics course was taught at San José State University in California, outcomes were staggeringly good. Traditionally, about 40 per cent of the students fail the class; this time, the failure rate fell to 9 per cent.”

That’s the most promising stat on MOOCs I’ve seen to date, and it’s exciting to think about the support MOOCs offer to both higher-ability and lower-ability students in each course. A high-performing student can extend her understanding of the material by choosing to watch additional video, perform additional assignments, and engage with the material outside class in a structured manner. Students in a course they find especially difficult can take advantage of the added support of being able to view video lectures, pausing and rewinding the professor at their own pace and on their own schedule, plus getting access to online forums with question and answer boards where hundreds or thousands of students share insights and engage in the subject matter with one another, with teaching assistants, and often with the professors themselves.

UNG recently announced its participation in the University System-wide Coursera partnership, and I look forward to our contribution to our own students’ learning and to that of the greater Coursera community. I’ve been slowly building a repertoire of video lessons and tutorials for a couple of my computer science courses, and I hope to carve out the time in the next semester or two to begin building a Coursera-quality online course that could be of benefit to thousands. What more could a professor want?

Panelists included retired IBM VP JoAnne Taylor, Cox Enterprises Director Tony Cox, CareerBuilder.com Software Engineer and NG Alumnus Scott Hand, Steve Melnick from Halski Systems, Shawn Brown – CEO of Snap Technologies, Robert Brown – alumnus and Lead Developer at GetUWired, and UNG’s own Career Services Director Dora Ditchfield.

Over the course of an hour and a half, students learned what skills and experiences IT employers in the region are looking for, and they heard how bright the outlook is for CS/IS/IT graduates for the next several years. “There are just more jobs than there are qualified people to fill them,” remarked one panelist.

Update: The UNG News’ Mike Marshall did a great job covering the event for the university’s news site. Check out the full article here: https://ung.edu/news/articles/2013/03/it-panel-shows-students-fast-track.php#.UUsLWhwqYsg

From our first computer science graduates in 1980, to our newest concentrations in Information Assurance & Security and Mobile & Web App Programming, computer science has a proud tradition at North Georgia. Our graduates have gone into exciting careers at: Blizzard Entertainment, IBM, Adobe, AT&T, Equifax, ADP, CDC, HP, MetLife, Norfolk Southern, UPS, the US Army, and in countless other industries and government, non-profit, and education organizations worldwide.

Our faculty hold Ph.D.s in computer science from the University of Kentucky, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, UGA, Georgia State, etc., and have industry experience in biometric security, software development, IT leadership, and more.

With record enrollment of over 360 CS & CIS majors across four campuses, there’s never been a better time to be a part of Computer Science at North Georgia.

When we began talking with Bruce and Charlie and Nancy almost five years ago about the need for fiber optic broadband in the region, I was focusing mainly on the needs of North Georgia College &State University. But as four county development authorities and the University worked together, we quickly caught Nancy Cobb’s vision that we needed to bring an abundance of fiber to the North Georgia region where before we’d only known scarcity.

We saw that it didn’t matter if Lumpkin or one of our neighbors had the best & fastest train in the world, if the tracks started and stopped at the county lines. This team recognized that to bring the next generation of jobs and prosperity to our part of the country, we needed to focus on a high-speed fiber line through ALL our counties – we needed to band together to get broadband together.

Our past President, Dr. David Potter, shared that vision, and generously allowed me to serve on the NGN team to help make this dream come true.

We couldn’t have known five years ago that North Georgia College & State University would be consolidating with Gainesville State College, forming a 15,000-student regional university with even higher bandwidth needs than we could imagine. But thanks to the work of The NGN team and our EMC partners, north Georgia can now connect to existing fiber from Gainesville to share a 1-gigabit connection between the two campuses.

Five years ago, we didn’t have a branch of the university in Cumming, but this fall, we’ll be able to connect the new University Center at Georgia 400 to both Gainesville and Dahlonega at the highest speeds in the region.

Now our new President, Dr. Bonita Jacobs, has cast the vision for North Georgia to join the GigU consortium, and when we become members of this gigabit university organization, we will be the only institution in the state other than Georgia Tech to be recognized for delivering gigabit services to our communities.

We can barely begin to envision what the technology landscape will be like in another five years, but we know that with this investment in abundance, this investment in our infrastructure, this investment in our future, the north Georgia region will be ready for every educational opportunity, every industry that’s created or grown, and every job that’s added. Today we bring Lumpkin County, and our neighboring counties, to the right side of the digital divide.

The graph above shows residential Internet maxed out completely from 9 am every morning through 1 am at night until last week.

Information Technology and Auxiliary Services are working constantly to improve students’ Internet experience on campus. On Thursday, March 1 at 11:30 pm, the Internet bandwidth to the residential and wireless network grew quietly and without interruption by 66% from 150 Megabits to 250 Megabits per second, or a quarter of a Gigabit per second in total speed.

As the university’s chief information officer, I can say that this is just one more step in a long line of upgrades to the Internet over the past several years, but it’s an important one. Students were maxing out the residential and wireless Internet from before 9 am every morning to as late as 2 am every night for the past several months. We knew we needed more bandwidth, and we needed it now.

When I became chief information officer in the fall of 2006, there were only 1,521 residential students living on campus, and the Internet bandwidth to the residence halls totaled only 20 Megabits, or about the equivalent of 8 home DSL lines of total Internet speed. In fall 2001, there were 2,037 students living on campus, an increase of more than 33% in 5 years. The bandwidth needs of the campus have grown even faster than the population, though. IT and Auxiliary Services have increased residential and wireless Internet bandwidth by 1,250% over five years, and we expect to double it twice more in the coming year.

We have more students on campus now than we did five years ago, but what’s changed even more is the way students are using the Internet and what types of services they’re using. Internet video is the largest single source of traffic already, and it’s expected to grow exponentially over the next several years. Thanks to the North Georgia Network fiber optic grant project, we’ll be able to grow another four times to one Gigabit of total bandwidth over the next year.

According to a report from Cisco last year [1], global consumer Internet video is expected to increase by over 700% between 2010 and 2015. And, a report last year from Sandvine [2] showed that Netflix had become the largest source of Internet traffic in the U.S. More students are using Netflix and Hulu in the evenings, and even beginning to use video communication technologies like Skype, Facetime and Google+ Hangouts to talk with family and friends. See the infographic below to learn some astonishing statistics.

Whatever technologies you’re using, though, the March 1 increase in bandwidth has made them faster and more reliable, and it’s only going to get better over the coming year.

[1] https://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/ns827/white_paper_c11-481360_ns827_Networking_Solutions_White_Paper.html

[2] https://techcrunch.com/2011/05/17/netflix-largest-internet-traffic/

This infographic shows the growth in online video usage in the U.S.

I shared a presentation I developed to honor President Emeritus Dr. David Potter upon his retirement last year. At the time, I was searching for a book on leadership that adequately described the kind of leadership Dr. Potter exemplified during his tenure at North Georgia. I, of course, considered The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by best-selling author (and my wife’s former employer) John C. Maxwell – always a favorite, but I was looking for something that mirrored Dr. Potter’s leadership style more directly.

If you search for “leadership” at Amazon.com, you’ll get north of 73,000 book results. Only about 1,000 of those were published before 1950. I decided to use a pre-1950 text after hearing a talk from Andy Stanley with a list of 15 characteristics we’re all looking for in our leaders and that we strive to achieve in our own leadership.

Here are those 15 character traits:

1. A leader is patient. He is not passive, but gives people the time to do things right.
2. A leader is kind. She is considerate.
3. A leader is not jealous. He celebrates everyone’s victories.
4. A leader is not boastful. She shares the credit.
5. A leader is not vain. He values others.
6. A leader does not dishonor others. She treats everyone with respect.
7. A leader is not self-seeking. He builds up the people around him.
8. A leader is not easily angered. She creates a safe fail and try again zone.
9. A leader keeps no record of wrongs. He forgives.
10. A leader does not delight in evil. She strives for the greater good.
11. A leader rejoices in the truth. He is transparent.
12. A leader protects. She stands up for what is right, the organization, her team, and herself.
13. A leader trusts. He believes in his people.
14. A leader hopes. She does not give in to negativity.
15. A leader perseveres. He keeps moving forward.

Many of you will recognize the source material: 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. This list of characteristics was written around 57 AD. Then why do these traits so accurately describe the characteristics of an effective leader in the 21st century?

Because the author wasn’t writing about leadership specifically, but about something even more powerful: Love.

Love is patient.
Love is kind.
Love is not jealous.
Love is not boastful.
Love is not vain.
Love does not dishonor others.
Love is not self-seeking.
Love is not easily angered.
Love keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil.
Love rejoices in the truth.
Love protects.
Love trusts.
Love hopes.
Love perseveres.

So, why do these characteristics sound so much like a leader we’d like to work for, or a leader we’d like to be?

I believe it’s because of the following:

A leader who loves

• the job he’s doing
• his organization
• the people he works with

leads from the heart.

That’s the kind of leader we need in the 21st century, and that’s the kind of leader I challenge you to be.

Leading from the Heart [PDF]

Handouts [PDF – four to a page]