Outside the Classroom

Compete as a team

As a student in the Cybersecurity program, you will have the opportunity to compete as part of our Cyber-Defense Team, our Binary Bears computer programming team, or both. In addition to honing your technical skills, these teams offer you the chance to:

• Develop your ability to work as part of a team
• Build your capacity to work under pressure
• Grow relationships outside the classroom

Dive into research

Working with a faculty member on cybersecurity research will help prepare you for continued graduate study or a career in the field. Our students are encouraged to reach out to faculty about research opportunities.

Gain practical experience

Mercer offers a cybersecurity practical experience program through the cybersecurity lab. In this program, students will administer IT resources that support real-world applications and services. Some of the services provided through the cybersecurity lab are:

• The Cyberlab website
• VPN service
• Active directory domain
• Database service
• Router/firewall (Palo-Alto and PfSense)
• DNS service
• DHCP service
• Security Operations Center (using Security Onion, ELK, and Splunk)

Students participating in the cybersecurity practice experience program will gain real-world experience across the following cybersecurity work roles:

• System administration and security
• Network administration and security
• Secure-software development (DevSecOps)
• Security operations and automation
• Penetration testing

Participate in an internship

Internships are a great way to put your skills to use and have a real-world impact. Internship opportunities will be posted on the Computer Science Department’s information board and sent directly to students throughout the academic year.