41909 Cybersecurity Capstone Studio
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particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source
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Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 6 cp
Result type: Grade, no marks
Requisite(s): 43010 Cyber Threat Intelligence and Incident Response
These requisites may not apply to students in certain courses.
There are course requisites for this subject. See access conditions.
Recommended studies:
cybersecurity principles; system security; information security; cloud security; cryptography; cyber threat intelligence; cybersecurity incident response.
Description
In this pre-professional capstone subject, students work in teams in a studio environment to analyse, design and implement secure projects, integrating skills and knowledge acquired in other subjects throughout the course. The capstone project is an opportunity for students to engage with current industry challenges in cybersecurity and requires students to address wide-ranging or conflicting technical, computing, and other issues in responding to those challenges.
Students analyse project requirements, evaluate design decisions, and explore innovative products, technologies, or opportunities. Assessment focuses on technical capability as well as essential professional skills like communication, project management, leadership, and teamwork, demonstrated through project artefacts created by students during the capstone. Although the capstone is team-based, students individually record their progress and contributions, as well as reflections on their learning and professional development as a cybersecurity professional.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
Upon successful completion of this subject students should be able to:
| 1. | Formulate product requirements to address the needs of a product owner in the cybersecurity domain. (B.1) |
|---|---|
| 2. | Build a model, simulation or prototype to meet challenges and requirements of solving a complex problem. (C.1) |
| 3. | Apply advanced cybersecurity knowledge and skills appropriate to the product being developed. (D.1) |
| 4. | Evidence professional contribution to teamwork, project management and record-keeping. (E.1) |
| 5. | Reflect on actions taken to improve own performance using feedback to enhance capabilities as a cybersecurity professional. (F.1) |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject also contributes specifically to the development of the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs):
- Socially Responsible: FEIT graduates identify, engage, interpret and analyse stakeholder needs and cultural perspectives, establish priorities and goals, and identify constraints, uncertainties and risks (social, ethical, cultural, legislative, environmental, economics etc.) to define the system requirements. (B.1)
- Design Oriented: FEIT graduates apply problem solving, design and decision-making methodologies to develop components, systems and processes to meet specified requirements. (C.1)
- Technically Proficient: FEIT graduates apply abstraction, mathematics and discipline fundamentals, software, tools and techniques to evaluate, implement and operate systems. (D.1)
- Collaborative and Communicative: FEIT graduates work as an effective member or leader of diverse teams, communicating effectively and operating within cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural contexts in the workplace. (E.1)
- Reflective: FEIT graduates critically self-review their performance to improve themselves, their teams, and the broader community and society. (F.1)
Contribution to the development of graduate attributes
This subject contributes to the development of the following SFIA competencies for the role “Cyber Security Technician/Engineer”:
SCTY: information Security – Level 4
VUAS: Vulnerability Assessment – Level 4
SCAD: Security Operations – Level 4
Teaching and learning strategies
This is a studio subject, and also forms the capstone subject for your cybersecurity degree.
As a studio subject, you will spend around half of your time working in a team addressing a complex problem in the cybersecurity domain. You will do this through creating an artefact (referred to as a product) by the end of the studio, which might be a prototype, a theoretical model, a simulation or something else that you can demonstrate to an audience consisting of academic staff, industry representatives and your peers. The other half of your time will be spent undertaking individual self-study guided by a learning contract (ILC), where you acquire new knowledge and skills that you can apply in the development of your team product. This reflects the kind of dynamic self-learning and personal reflection expected of industry professionals in a rapidly changing field like cybersecurity.
As a capstone subject, you are expected to integrate and apply knowledge and skills gained throughout your degree, both in IT systems generally and cybersecurity in particular. The team product will represent a challenging real problem in the field of cybersecurity that requires the use of in-depth computing and cybersecurity knowledge and an analytical problem-solving approach. The team product will typically have multiple possible solutions, and require conceptual thinking, critical analysis, abstraction and a design mindset. There won’t be one obvious solution. The problem may have component parts or sub-problems, conflicting requirements or issues, and may need to meet the requirements of diverse groups of stakeholders with varying needs.
Even though the product is developed as a team, to meet the requirements of a capstone subject, each student needs to individually demonstrate how they have been able to integrate and apply knowledge and skills from throughout the degree. This should be reflected in each individual’s contribution to the tangible outcomes of the team product, as well as in the personal design journal that each student keeps individually that documents individual work.
You should expect to commit nine hours per week for the studio. Two hours of this this will be as scheduled studio time. You are expected to attend this session each week. This is the time when you can seek feedback and use it to make iterations to your product as well as to reflect on your progress and record these reflections in your personal design journal, PDJ:
1. Individual students and staff meet to discuss ILCs
2. Teams meet with staff to discuss team progress
3. Teams meet with product owners
4. Industry visitors present talks on interesting topics
Additional time will be available in the Software Development Studio room before and after the studio time for teams to schedule individual meetings with their product owner, in cases where the product owner cannot attend the studio.
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Cybersecurity Capstone Portfolio
| Intent: | To document the iterative learning process and artefacts that demonstrate the achievement of learning goals related to cybersecurity. |
|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses the following subject learning objectives (SLOs): 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 This assessment task contributes to the development of the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs): B.1, C.1, D.1, E.1 and F.1 |
| Type: | Portfolio |
| Groupwork: | Group, group and individually assessed |
| Weight: | 100% |
| Length: | 6000 words, noting that some components may require images, diagrams or videos |
Minimum requirements
To achieve a pass grade, students must meet the pass performance level stipulated in the subject’s specification standards.