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. For those who have internships, it could be a more detailed report of what they did there, how the topics learned at during the cyber program applied to their experience, and the impact the real-world environment had on their understanding of cyber security.

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.