{"id":420,"date":"2025-12-18T19:17:53","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T19:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/cyber-institute-news\/?p=420"},"modified":"2025-12-18T19:17:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T19:17:53","slug":"icss-kmcs3-joint-stand-for-engaging-six-formers-at-2025-aspiration-digital-kent-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/cyber-institute-news\/2025\/12\/18\/icss-kmcs3-joint-stand-for-engaging-six-formers-at-2025-aspiration-digital-kent-event\/","title":{"rendered":"iCSS-KMCS3 joint stand for engaging six-formers at 2025 Aspiration Digital Kent event"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday 3<sup>rd<\/sup> December 2025, <a href=\"https:\/\/cyber.kent.ac.uk\/\">iCSS (Institute of Cyber Security for Society)<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/cyber\/kmcs3\/\">KMCS3 (Kent &amp; Medway Cyber Security Student Society)<\/a> had a joint stand as part of <a href=\"https:\/\/aspiration.digital\/kent\">the 2025 Aspiration Digital Kent event<\/a>, on the Canterbury campus of the University of Kent. This one-day event was organised by <a href=\"https:\/\/aspiration.digital\/\">Aspirational Digital<\/a>, a one-day digital skills conference designed to educate six-form students (16-18-year-olds) on the different roles in the digital sector and various career paths such as in cyber security, AI, computing, ICT, marketing, design, arts, and engineering.<\/p>\n<p>The iCSS-KMCS3 stand at the event was manned by the following volunteers:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/matthewboakes\/\">Dr Matthew Boakes<\/a>, Technical Architect at the UK government\u2019s Home Office, former UG\/PhD student\/postdoc and current Assistant Lecturer at the University of Kent<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/temesgenkd\/\">Temesgen Kitaw Damenu<\/a>, current PhD student at iCSS and School of Computing, University of Kent<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/school-of-computing\/people\/3183\/franqueira-virginia\">Dr Virginia Franqueira<\/a>, iCSS Deputy Director (Education), who is also Director of the University of Kent ACE-CSE (Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Education) recognised by the UK government<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/kuruzehra\/\">Zehra Kuru<\/a>, former MSc student at the University of Kent\u2019s School of Computing, who was also the former Vice President for PGT students of KMCS3<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hooklee.com\/\">Professor Shujun Li<\/a>, iCSS Director and School Outreach Lead, who also leads the University of Kent ACE-CSR (Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research) recognised by the UK government<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/mihaimarinmoraru\/\">Mihai Moraru<\/a>, current UG student at the University of Kent\u2019s School of Computing, who was also the former President and is the current Vice President for Strategy and Development of KMCS3<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/yichaowang12\/\">Dr Yichao Wang<\/a>, former PhD student and current postdoctoral at iCSS and School of Computing, University of Kent<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>At the stand, many cyber security educational materials and activities were showcased. These include some art works from <a href=\"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/cyber\/2024-creative-cyber-exhibition\/\">the 2024 \u201cCreative Cyber\u201d Exhibition<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/cyber\/2024-cyber-security-awareness-month\/\">the 2024 iCSS-KMCC-KMCSN-KMCS3 Cyber Security Awareness Month<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/cyber\/2023-24-cyberanything-competition-results\/\">the 2023-24 iCSS-KMCC-KMCS3 CyberAnything Competition<\/a>, two animated videos iCSS produced for cyber security awareness (\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/_ogdRNNIt2Y\">How to be a cyber superhero<\/a>\u201d and \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/RCvSaiCgFeg\">Why does cyber security matter for everyone?<\/a>\u201d), some cyber security awareness comic booklets produced by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xcapismlearning.com\/\">Xcapism Learning Ltd<\/a> for iCSS, an online safety book <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cyberlite.org\/programme\/rgsc-paloaltonetworks\"><em>Ready, Get Set, Connect!<\/em><\/a> produced by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cyberlite.org\/\">Cyberlite Books Pte. Ltd.<\/a> for iCSS, an article \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/futurumcareers.com\/how-to-beat-the-cybercriminals-and-stay-safe-online\">How to Beat the Cybercriminals and Stay Safe Online<\/a>\u201d iCSS did for <a href=\"https:\/\/futurumcareers.com\/\"><em>Futurum Careers<\/em><\/a> (a free online resource and magazine for introducing 14-19-year-olds worldwide to different scientific disciplines), certificates of the University of Kent as an ACE-CSE with Gold award status and an ACE-CSR, the award plaque of the University of Kent as the \u201cCyber University of the Year\u201d of the 2023 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.therealcyberawards.co.uk\/\">Real Cyber Awards<\/a>, and flyers of KMCS3 and <a href=\"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/cyber\/kmcsn\/\">KMCSN (Kent &amp; Medway CyberSchools Network)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>At the event, the iCSS and KMCS3 volunteers talked with many six-formers who visited the stand and distributed free copies of some cyber security awareness materials.<\/p>\n<p>The event helped connect iCSS and KMCS3 with six-formers who are interested in digital careers and school\/college teachers who are teaching and supporting six-formers\u2019 learning experience in digital skills and their aspirations in pursuing a digital career pathway. We look forward to future events like this!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday 3rd December 2025, iCSS (Institute of Cyber Security for Society) and KMCS3 (Kent &amp; Medway Cyber Security Student Society) had a joint stand &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/cyber-institute-news\/2025\/12\/18\/icss-kmcs3-joint-stand-for-engaging-six-formers-at-2025-aspiration-digital-kent-event\/\">Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81794,"featured_media":421,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[237402,283029],"tags":[283150,37339,283153,107,765,283152,283154],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/cyber-institute-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/cyber-institute-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/cyber-institute-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/cyber-institute-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/cyber-institute-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/cyber-institute-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":422,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/cyber-institute-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420\/revisions\/422"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/cyber-institute-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/cyber-institute-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/cyber-institute-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/cyber-institute-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}