2026 Virginia Cybersecurity Education Conference

Building Cyber Literacy Pipelines: Engaging K–12 Schools Through Real-World Experiences explores how to move students beyond basic awareness into meaningful engagement with cybersecurity through hands-on, applied learning. This session highlights a scalable model that integrates foundational curriculum with immersive experiences such as simulations, competitions, and interactive challenges to build critical thinking, problem-solving, and career awareness.
Grounded in programs like Cyber Saturday, Cyber Feud, and the Outsmart Cyberthreats (OC) Booklet, this session demonstrates how real-world experiences can strengthen cyber literacy while aligning with workforce frameworks such as NICE. Participants will gain insight into how to design and implement engaging cybersecurity learning opportunities that are accessible across grade levels and adaptable to both in-school and out-of-school settings.
This session is designed for K–12 educators, school and district leaders and workforce development partners seeking practical strategies to introduce or expand cybersecurity education. Attendees will leave with actionable approaches to increase student engagement, integrate cybersecurity into existing curricula, and build sustainable pipelines that connect classroom learning to future career pathways.

Do you currently incorporate the PTSA (Packet Tracer Skills Assessment) into your Cisco Networking Academy courses? If so, consider attending a session designed to introduce you to its latest updates and enhancements. Participants will explore the new features of the tool, gain insight into the improved scoring reports, and learn how to efficiently access and implement these resources within their courses. The PTSA is integrated into all three CCNA courses, as well as the Network Security curriculum, making it a versatile and widely applicable assessment option. It serves as an effective alternative for evaluating student skills, particularly in situations where access to physical networking equipment is limited or unavailable. By leveraging this tool, instructors can provide meaningful, hands-on assessment experiences in a virtual environment while still maintaining alignment with course objectives and industry standards.

Students can complete labs but can they explain what they did in a way employers value? This session focuses on designing experiential learning that builds real cybersecurity skills and helps students confidently communicate their experience.

Participants will explore how to align hands-on lab activities with workforce expectations, turning technical tasks into meaningful, resume-ready skills. The session highlights strategies for structuring labs so students are not just following steps, but actively thinking, solving problems, and demonstrating applied knowledge.

Examples will include mapping Cyber Range labs to real-world roles, identifying the skills behind each activity, and guiding students to clearly communicate what they did, how they did it, and why it matters.

Attendees will leave with practical strategies and ready-to-use ideas to help students connect lab work to real-world cybersecurity skills—making their experience more meaningful, measurable, and marketable.

Ideal for instructors who want to strengthen student engagement and better prepare students for careers in cybersecurity.

Looking for a streamlined way to bring Virginia Cyber Range labs into your Canvas courses? This session is designed for instructors who want to incorporate hands-on cybersecurity experiences while keeping course design efficient, organized, and student-friendly.

Participants will follow a step-by-step walkthrough of how to access the Virginia Cyber Range, navigate instructor resources, select appropriate virtual machine environments, and integrate labs directly into Canvas. Using ITN260 – Network Security Basics as a model, this session demonstrates how to embed labs, structure modules, and create a clean, intuitive learning experience without overcomplicating course setup.

The focus is on practical implementation and time-saving strategies that can be applied immediately. Attendees will leave with a ready-to-use Canvas module structure, a clear integration workflow, and access to shared resources that can be quickly adapted for their own courses.

Ideal for instructors looking to enhance or refine their use of the Virginia Cyber Range in Canvas.

Virginia's CTE Cybersecurity Fundamentals course (6302) provides a critical on-ramp for students entering the cybersecurity workforce pipeline, but aligning its VDOE tasks to national workforce frameworks takes deliberate, structured work. This session focuses on how the Virginia Cyber Range is currently approaching that alignment, including the development of a mapping spreadsheet designed to connect 6302 course tasks to the NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework.

Participants will get an inside look at the methodology behind the mapping process, how the spreadsheet is being built out, and the decisions that go into connecting K-12 instructional content to workforce-ready competencies. The session will also touch on the transition from KSA to TKS terminology as context for why this work matters now.

This is a birds-of-a-feather working session; attendees are encouraged to share their own alignment experiences, ask questions, and contribute to the conversation. Whether you're just starting to think about workforce alignment or already working through similar challenges, the goal is peer-to-peer exchange around a shared problem

Today’s brilliant minds are being recruited and conditioned to hack without remorse. The growth of CTFs and cybercrime is creating a new threat—Hacker Gangs. It starts with curiosity and then progressively increases to full-on hacking, as small wins receive appreciation from peers that once ignored these amazing minds. Join Jessica Gulick to discuss how we can create a Defender’s Code that helps our youth stay on the right path and make better decisions without hindering innovation and curiosity.

GT Edge AI will be presenting on Build Your Own AI Cyber Home Lab powered by Dell and NVIDIA!

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming cybersecurity. However, its greatest impact on education may not be the addition of new AI courses or technologies. As AI evolves from a productivity tool into an intelligent collaborator, it challenges long-held assumptions about what students should learn, how they learn, how they are assessed, and which foundational skills will define the next generation of cybersecurity professionals. Preparing students for this future requires more than updating cybersecurity curricula; it requires rethinking the educational experience itself.

Drawing on lessons learned from the ongoing evolution of GMU’s cybersecurity engineering programs, this keynote explores the opportunities, challenges, and difficult tradeoffs involved in redesigning cybersecurity education in the age of AI. Rather than presenting a single institutional model, it proposes a practical framework of design principles that educators, academic leaders, industry partners, and policymakers can adapt to their own educational contexts while preparing students for an increasingly AI-driven profession.