COMP-4799 Details
COMP 4799 Cyber Security Capstone
Course Description
The cyber security capstone project is intended to act as the culmination of the student’s cyber security learning journey at the University of Denver. The work product of this course is a project/internship/related-work report detailing aspects of what the student finds most important about cyber security. The capstone is a personalized course for each student, depending on what area(s) they are interested in. Typically the final report is a 5-20 page white paper.
The capstone projected is led by one of the cyber security professors at DU, and students should take advantage of this fact to get feedback on ideas for the capstone, as well as discussions with the professor thoughout the capstone quarter. It is up to each individual student how much they engage; however the more they do the better the learning experience!
Capstone Options
As mentioned above, the capstone itself can vary depending on the student.
Some students do what amounts to an independent study or independent research project applying cyber security skills to some tangible idea. This could be hacking an IoT device, building a malware analysis lab, learning a new tool or technology, or something else (these are just examples!). This option is open-ended, as it’s all about the student learning/doing something that will help in their cyber security career. Or it could just be something they find cool and/or fun.
Yet another option is doing sort of a “state of the art” analysis of some aspect of cyber security. This could be reading documents related to some cyber legislation, doing a literature review on some area of cyber research, analyzing some new form of malware or hacking campaign, etc. Once again, this option is open-ended; students should take this as an opportunity to dive deep into a compelling topic with the help of their assigned professor.
Internship for Capstone
For those who have internships, the capstone paper is still required. It (the capstone paper) would normally be a detailed report of what students did in the internship, how the topics learned during the cyber program applied to their experience, and the impact the real-world environment had on their understanding of cyber security.
If you are a cyber student using an internship for your capstone, you will register for COMP-3904 (Co-op/Internship) during the quarter of your internship. This internship should be for ZERO (0) credit hours! If you register for internship for credit, you will have to pay for it. In the same quarter as the internship and the COMP-3904 for zero credit, you should also register for capstone (COMP-4799) for 4 credits. You must complete the required capstone paper as part of the capstone!
The process for registering for an internship is a non-standard process. You don’t register for the class as you do normally during registration, but you submit the internship information to PCO (Pioneer Careers office) and that will get you registered for the internship in the correct quarter. You can find more details about the process here.