Portland State Magazine Spring 2017

SPRING 2017 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE 5 PA R K B L O C K S THIS JULY, 60 high school students from Oregon and Washington will have less than 24 hours to respond to an imminent cyberattack and create an action plan for how to proceed. The fictional calamity is part of the fourth annual CyberPDX, a five-day residential camp in which PSU faculty introduce students from 10 different schools to cybersecurity, law and ethics, programming, and creative arts, including filmmaking. A goal of the organizers is to encourage women, minority students and students who are the first in their family to attend college to consider pursuing these fields. During the camp students are kept busy from breakfast to bedtime and live in the Ondine with teachers from their school. The camp ends with a student film festival and a final cyber challenge and policy debate. DOING the right thing was a simple decision for student Masoud AlMazrouei. The PSU economics major bought a used laptop, but as soon as he turned it on, he discovered personal files and photographs. AlMazrouei, who is from the United Arab Emirates, tracked down the stolen computer’s owner and returned it, refusing any reimbursement. An Oregonian newspaper columnist ran the story, which caught the eye of President Wim Wiewel. He wanted to meet and thank the student for his honesty. Wiewel ended up surprising AlMazrouei with a used MacBook Pro for his studies. “We’re very proud of you,” said Wiewel. “It was a great story, and you did the right thing.” Cyber war games A good turn rewarded