NORTHERN NEWS
Team advisors are not allowed in the room. Students are selected for the competitions on a voluntary basis. Training sessions begin in September even though competitions aren’t held until March. Hu says students must be dedicated and be interested in this field because it is such a big commitment. For now, the cyber competitions are held at Kennesaw State in Atlanta, though the Rieveschl Digitorium in Griffin Hall will eventually host them as well. NKU competes in the southeast division with anywhere from nine to 11 other teams. In addition to placing third last year, NKU also received the division’s “Best in Business” award for completing the most business tasks in a competition. The College of Informatics may receive another nod of success this fall. COI is currently applying for designation as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The application is a twostep process, with the first step having already received approval for meeting coursework requirements. The second step is to map out teaching and research activities. If final approval is granted, NKU will be the first university in Kentucky and one of only 140 universities nationwide to receive it. Hu says COI students will have more scholarship opportunities and a better job outlook, as employers are already looking for IT professionals who graduated from schools certified as NACE in IAE. Hu also notes that NKU has more computer information technology and computer science majors than ever, a trend that is expected to continue. According the U.S. Dept. of Labor, the field of network security is projected to increase 22 percent between now and 2020, a stat that brings new meaning to the phrase “job security.” —Casey Binder ’13
9
Future, Meet Past
Introducing high-tech historical tours Starting a unique high-tech company was probably the last thing Sean Thomas and Steve Oldfield thought they’d find themselves doing when they enrolled in the Master of Arts in public history program at NKU. But when the two began working on a class project together, they quickly realized there was a niche, not just for their expertise but also for their passion for history. “We have lots of small towns in this area that have interesting historical value,” Thomas says. “But they don’t have the money or manpower to have guided tours. People just pass right through them without any chance of learning about the remarkable things that happened there.” Thomas and Oldfield decided their capstone project would put a new spin on traditional walking tours. They teamed up with Brian Sauer, a graduate student in the NKU computer science department, to develop a high-tech historical experience. Their class project became Instant Access Tours, and these history students became entrepreneurs. The two brought the right combination of experience to the venture. Thomas has spent years as a videographer and editor while Oldfield is an award-winning journalist. Add their love for history and the new company was a no-brainer. Instant Access Tours selects local historical sites, collects existing information and research, and develops engaging web pages with narrative text, photos, and video interviews. The company recently launched its first tour, which celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Augusta (Ky.). The tour, available at www.battleofaugusta.com, provides the rich history of this critical Civil War battle. “There is so much interesting information out there,” Oldfield says. “It just takes some digging. Residents of the communities flesh out the stories in a very personal way. Imagine driving through a small town and seeing a QR code on a building. Point your cell phone at the code and suddenly you are transported back to some historical event. Or log onto a website to get a full story of something that happened in that town. That’s what Instant Access Tours is all about.” —Chris Cole ’99, ’04, ’09 winter 2013