Summer Bootcamps Are Officially Done! And, Did We Mention? They Were Awesome.

Summer Bootcamps Are Officially Done! And, Did We Mention? They Were Awesome.

MN State IT Center of Excellence had a busy and fun June hosting Cyber Bootcamp at Metropolitan State University and the 1st Annual Data Bootcamp at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. Both of these events brought together students from across Minnesota to explore cyber or data and advance their understanding and abilities.

CSi (Cyber Security Innovations) Bootcamp 

Thirty-five students from across the state of Minnesota participated in this year’s event held at Metropolitan State University. Students were able to attend either the CompTIA Security + or the PENTEST+ certification training paths.   

 

Instructors Sahar Ismail (LegacyArmour) and Chris Schultz (Metropolitan State University) led the students through a week of intense learning and preparation for each to sit for the respective certifications.

On Friday afternoon both groups came together to visit and discuss cyber topics with our industry panel members. Panel members Tim Crothers, Target; Kristi Yauch, TCF Bank; Jeff Peal, Federal Reserve Bank; Sahar Ismail, Legacy Armour; and Faisal Kaleem, Metropolitan State University (MNCyber) presented their thoughts and views. Questions were asked and comments were made. It was a great time to learn from experts and network with leaders in the cyber field.

         

Data Bootcamp 

Our 1st Annual Data Bootcamp was hosted by the University of Minnesota, Duluth and brought together students from 9 different colleges and universities for 5 ½ days of data learning. James Harroun and Marilou Chanrasmi (SAS), Ruth Hammel (JMP) and Tracy Bibelnieks (U of M, Duluth Math Professor) brought every aspect of the data lifecycle together. From Data mining, scrubbing, management, visualization to storytelling all aspects of the world of data science and analytics were reviewed.

     

This bootcamp was heavy into hands on activities with students working on solving issues and telling stories from their reviews. The best part of the week was seeing the teamwork develop and grow that culminated with the Friday Storytelling Presentations. From the creative to the in-depth views, using the tools of SAS and JMP students were able to give compelling presentations on their analytics.