Cummings Selected as Outstanding IT Student

Jack Cummings was selected as the 2017 Outstanding Student Award for the Department of Applied Computing & Engineering Technology at Missoula College. Outstanding Student is an annual award sponsored by the Mortar Board. It celebrates academic excellence and outstanding service of a graduating student. Jack will be receiving the AAS degree in IT - Programming & App Development. In addition to being an excellent student, Jack has demonstrated outstanding service as a trustworthy tutor for students on the Missoula College campus. Congratulations to Jack and the entire graduating class of 2017! Picture below are: Professor Tom Gallagher, Jack Cummings, Lucas Ogala, and Professor Steve Shen (Left to Right). Lucas is the First Call Computer Solutions Intern and scholarship recipient.

Sustainability Award Goes to Missoula College Professor

The Sustainable Campus Committee recognized Missoula College Associate Professor Brad Layton as winner of the 2017 UM Sustainability Faculty Award. Dr. Layton has been with the College since 2010. He has been an constant advocate for sustainable energy on the UM campus and across the State of Montana. Countless students have benefited under Brad's tutelage in honing their passion and expertise for developing practical solutions in sustainable energy technologies.

Brad will be leading a group of students from Blackfeet Community College in an Energy Technology Practicum taking place in Browning during the month of June. These students will be completing a series of sustainable energy education activities.

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Students Participate in National Cybersecurity Competition

Missoula College students participated in a month-long, nationwide series of cybersecurity activities. “These students are graduating with an A.A.S. in Information Technology – Network Administration & Security, and this is a chance for them to test their skills and knowledge against their peers,” said Adjunct Professor Dianne Burke, who leads the ITS 222 and ITS 271 courses that participated.

The first several days of the competition gives students the opportunity to refresh their skills or learn new information through online labs and review activities. The materials include topics such as Password Cracking, Log Analysis, Cryptography, Network Traffic Analysis, and Web and Wireless Vulnerabilities. “Students tend to like his part of the competition since there’s no pressure, and they can select exercises that sound interesting,” stated Burke. “The Preseason and Regular Season competitions that follow kick up the intensity.”

The Preseason phase assess student knowledge in four domains: general cybersecurity knowledge, cryptography, network traffic analysis, and log file analysis. Students are ranked based on their accuracy – how quickly they found the correct answer – and completion – how many questions were answered correctly. “Overall, everyone scored in the top 40% or higher. Almost 1900 students competed, so Missoula College did really well,” explained Burke.

When asked which areas were problematic for students, Burke laughed and said “They did really well in general cybersecurity knowledge and cryptography. Next year I’m going to spend more time on network traffic and log analysis before we start competing.”

Congrats to Cisco Networking Students

Students completing the AAS degree in IT - Network Administration and Security pose for a picture following completion of a skills-based final assessment. These students will be graduating from Missoula College to assume positions in the workforce as system administrators, network engineers, computer support professionals, and cybersecurity experts.

Missoula College offers a four-course sequence in IP networking based upon the Cisco CCNA curriculum. Lecturer Wally Higgins leads the Cisco Regional Academy for the Department of Applied Computing & Engineering Technology at the University of Montana.