New features enhance learning experience at 2015 TCIPG Summer School

7/20/2015 4:11:00 AM ITI Staff

The program focused on delivering a firm grounding in fundamentals of power systems, cyber systems, cyber-physical systems, and application of these fundamentals to the modern power grid.

Written by ITI Staff

In June, the Trustworthy Cyber Infrastructure for the Power Grid (TCIPG) research project held its biannual summer school in St. Charles, Illinois. The event featured a week-long course on cybersecurity for energy delivery systems, with a focus on the power grid. Attendees included utility practitioners, industry vendors & consultants, academic researchers, national research labs, and regulatory agencies.

Hands-On Learning Lab

As with past summer school events, the program focused on delivering a firm grounding in fundamentals of power systems, cyber systems, cyber-physical systems, and application of these fundamentals to the modern power grid. The program also dived into advanced and special topics of interest on the evolving smarter grid, emerging research, and smart grid outreach & education. An informal job fair offered attendees the option to explore current and future employment options with summer school corporate sponsors and other industry participants.

This year, the school incorporated new technology and more hands-on learning options that allowed for increased interactivity and extended learning opportunities. During each main session, attendees had the option to submit questions and answer quiz questions using a live, online Q&A/polling application. In addition to a full virtual system laboratory available 24/7 during the summer school, evening labs offered a variety of hands-on learning options including:

Teaching tool from session on Common Threats, Defenses, and Impact

cybersecurity ethical assessment (mini version of activity offered in 2013)
penetration testing environment
assessment environment for wired/wireless control systems
power systems modeling and simulation tools
education demonstrations featuring circuits/switches & Minecraft

This was the third summer school provided by TCIPG with funding from DOE/DHS (2011, 2013, 2015). The NSF-funded TCIP research project, which preceded TCIPG, provided a summer school in 2008. More information about TCIPG Summer Schools is online at http://tcipg.org/events/summer-school.

Announcements

Share this story

This story was published July 20, 2015.