Students from the Diploma in Cybersecurity & Digital Forensics participated in an overseas study trip to Boston and New York, USA, from 4-11 November 2018. There were fifteen Freshmen students who went on the trip, accompanied by senior lecturer Mr John Leong Peng Kwai.

The students had a chance to see and experience the cyber range facility at IBM Boston’s Innovation Centre and also visited IBM New York’s state of the art Watson research lab which features artificial intelligence, big data and analytics and cloud technologies in the area of Cyber Threat Intelligence. The students also had a chance to interact with staff and students from the technology faculties of Northeastern University, Boston University, Boston College and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They also visited companies like Flywire, a leading provider of global payment solutions, Recorded Future, a global real-time cyber threat intelligence provider.

Reflections from Chloe Chua Xiu Min, Diploma in Cybersecurity & Digital Forensics

“I learnt that there is no end to helping people by leveraging on technology. For instance IBM Healthcare is trying to use AI to help doctors analyse patients’ symptoms and diagnose illnesses faster. This helps doctors’ prescribe the right treatment more quickly. This trip has inspired me to want to study harder and help others in need. Now, there are many countries with a large ageing population and I wish to further my studies to help make this change using AI to make everyone’s life a little better. The visit to IBM gave me the motivation to study harder and help people who are in need too.”

Reflections from Tham Yu Xuan Carment, Diploma in Cybersecurity & Digital Forensics

“I had the chance to experience the differences in lifestyle and culture between the United States and Singapore. I would definitely encourage future students to go on this trip, as this is a once in a lifetime experience. They would be able to learn a lot if they are thinking of joining multinational companies in future – such as IBM, Recorded Future and Flywire.

This trip was an enjoyable one. This visit has benefitted me as it further increased my interest in becoming a cybersecurity professional. I feel that what I’ve learnt from the visit is very applicable to my current life.

The visit to the headquarters in Boston and going into the cyber range were mind blowing, as the range was equipped with everything from replica news channels, to a website that looks legitimate but was not. It was one of the most high-tech facilities that I have ever seen. I liked hearing from the different speakers and what it is like working there. It definitely hypes me up about considering my future job in this company.”