Bring your brain; start working.

The Cyber Engineering pathway is a blend of programming, cyber security, and hardware engineering disciplines. Students will learn to research, design, develop, and test computer systems and components. The NICERC courses in the pathway use project-driven, application-based curricula that engage students at the secondary level. The courses provide a hands-on, context-based approach that empowers teachers to prepare students to become the next generation of engineers and cyber professionals. The coursework explores topics such as robotics, electricity, and security concerns in today’s digital society.

Most experts agree that Artificial Intelligence will radically change the American work force. It is estimated that automation will replace anywhere from 30 to 50 percent of current jobs by 2030. This is nothing new to history:  technology has created and eliminated countless jobs in the past, but AI is predicted to accelerate the dynamic. When we changed Central's IT pathway, we decided to move away from computer repair curriculum to one that emphasized coding and design. When you look back at the myriad of changes in the IT fields, computer programming has stood the test of time as a steady job. We feel that our students have to learn how to manipulate the machine.  

In 2016 we entered an agreement with the University of Louisville's Speed School of Engineering to create an educational partnership. The school was a critical catalyst in the creation of our makerspace, and it has helped us both financially and academically every year. Speed is the primary sponsor of our robotics teams, and they have provided invaluable equipment for our classrooms. The end goal is for us to feed pre-engineering students to Speed, and many of our students come to Central for that purpose. They are the ideal partner, and we hope that we make them proud.  

 The National Integrated Cyber Education Research Center (NICERC offers grant-funded cyber, STEM, and computer science curricula and professional development. Their goal is the same as ours, to prepare our students to succeed in the cyber workforce of tomorrow.   We use NICERC's curriculum to teach PBASIC programming with BoeBots and LINUX with Raspberry Pis. We are big advocates of the hands-on activities that have been conceived by NICERC.  And their training seminars are fantastic! 

Amazon realizes that the United States is in dire need of computer engineers. They provide us with a Python programming course via the Edhesive online platform. We are currently teaching this to our freshmen and sophomores. The use of Python has grown more than any other computer language in the past few years, especially in the field of AI.  Since you don't have to have so many semicolons, it is so much easier to teach!  Our industry partners have indicated that they wish to hire individuals with coding experience, and Python is one of the preferred skills. We are thankful to Amazon for selecting us as a program school, and we look forward to expanding our partnership with them.

Over the years we have been able to procure four large and two small 3D printers, which are used to teach students the basics of additive manufacturing.  We see this as a crucial 21st Century skill.  It is estimated that the 3D printing industry has the potential to grow by 25.76% a year!  Our students learn how to design elements using Tinkercad.  We are in the process of adding a CNC machine to our class so that we can add subtractive manufacturing to our classroom experiences.  

One of the unique aspects of our magnet is that we rotate each group of students every nine weeks between the three instructors (Brown, Canaday, and Gilbert). The intent is expose our students to as much subject matter as we can.  Although we have been blessed with a number of quality STEM education products, most of our inventory is enough for just one class (for instance, we only have so many Boe-Bots). Our rotation allows 54 students per grade level to be involved in all educational aspects of our magnet. We owe much of our team's fluency working together to our administration's focus on quality PLC work.