Dr. Jacob Miller, Associate Professor (Retired/Adjunct), Pennsylvania College of Technology

Dr. Miller holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in mathematics from University of Delaware and a B.A. in mathematics with a computer science concentration from Shippensburg University. After receiving a baccalaureate degree, he was employed by IBM for nearly a decade as a senior operations research analyst. Since 1997, Dr. Miller has been teaching mathematics, computer science, information technology, and cybersecurity. Dr. Miller, retired as an associate professor and department head of information technology at Pennsylvania College of Technology in 2020. He still teaches part-time for the college. His main teaching interests are in cryptography, risk analysis, forensics, contingency planning, and cybersecurity education. Miller was instrumental in the initial effort of ACM and ACM-SIGITE (ACM Special Interest Group for Information Technology Educators) to define Information Technology curriculum (ACM IT2008) and ABET accreditation criteria for IT. At Pennsylvania College of Technology, he guided the development of the Information Technology, and Information Assurance and Cybersecurity programs. He has authored/co-authored numerous papers on IT curriculum, classroom pedagogy, and experiential learning. Over the last decade, Dr. Miller’s focus has primarily been on cybersecurity awareness and education in the K-12 arena. His focus had been twofold: first, make more security aware students/employees in general, and second, raise interest in K-12 students in becoming cybersecurity professionals. To that end, Dr. Miller has co-authored and implemented two NSF grants with colleagues from Penn College. The first was to create coursework for students of any major to get basic information security knowledge to assist them in the workforce. This was targeted at primarily grade 10-12 students as well as college students. The second grant targeted middle school through grade 10 students to help raise their awareness of the cybersecurity profession as well as teaching them everyday tools and techniques they could use to protect themselves in a digital life. This effort was implemented by teaching grade 6-12 teachers and then providing them with the materials to take to the students. This effectively made the teachers a force multiplier in terms of getting the message to the students. Both projects exceeded expectations.