The apple tea project: experiential learning activities with AI-augmented pathways to build teamwork skills in community college cybersecurity education

The National Science Foundation Division of Undergraduate Education awarded Carnegie Mellon University $999,502 on October 15, 2026, under the STEM Education program to develop and deploy the Apple Tea Project, a simulation-based cybersecurity curriculum designed for community college students.

The project expands Cyber Simlab, a previously NSF-funded simulation environment that provides realistic practice in technical and interpersonal security skills within a simulated corporate information network subject to real-world cyber threats and data vulnerabilities. Carnegie Mellon will expand the curriculum's experiential learning activities, package them for nationwide distribution, and deploy the Apple Tea curriculum across a network of employers and institutional partners in the Mid-Atlantic region and beyond. The initiative focuses on coverage of research-based knowledge areas and incidents most sought after by employers, complemented by mentoring from industry practitioners and enhanced access to internships and full-time positions for participating students.

Work is performed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with performance completion scheduled for September 30, 2029. The assistance type is a Project Grant under CFDA 47.076.

Abstract

The apple tea project aims to serve the national interest by creating a simulation-based learning environment that can provide a realistic experience of working within a company as a security professional. This environment, called cyber simlab, was developed and piloted in the team's prior NSF-funded research. Working within cyber simlab will enable students to practice both technical and interpersonal skills in a simulated corporate information network that is subject to the same cyber-threats and data vulnerabilities that occur in the real world. As part of this research, the project will expand the set of provided experiences and package them to share with programs nationwide, with the goal of maximizing coverage of the knowledge areas identified in research-based recommendations and exposing students to the types of incidents they are likely to experience after graduation and which are most sought after by employers. The apple tea curriculum package will be deployed in the context of a broad and expanding network of employers and other institutional partners, which will enhance learning and career opportunities for cybersecurity students in the mid-atlantic region. The momentum created by this network will fuel the sustainability of the project's dissemination efforts. These partnerships will also ensure that cyber simlab focuses on industry-relevant content, that the community college students using IT receive useful mentoring from practitioners with work experience, and that these students receive enhanced access to internships and full-time jobs. The academic partnership network will enable the system to be deployed in a range of university and community college cybersecurity programs. The student population will be large enough to provide useful evidence on cyber simlab's impact and efficacy in these settings. The partnerships with cybersecurity employers and other stakeholders will ensure that the simulations are grounded in corporate practice and evolve to reflect changes in the array of cyber-threats facing the nation. The low-cost, open-source architecture will make these opportunities available at low cost, leveling the playing field between private and public universities and between four-year and two-year institutions. The project findings will be disseminated to other two-year and four-year colleges across the state and nationally. This project is funded by the advanced technological education program, which focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are planned for this award.