Cyberattack on the University of Akureyri sparks project that received substantial grant from Erasmus+
The Continuing Education program of the University of Akureyri and the Teaching and Information Technology Center of the University of Akureyri (KHA) recently received a grant of 400,000 euros from the European Union's Erasmus+ grant program for education, youth, and sports. The project is titled "Seniors Artificial Intelligence Learning – Well Educated and Risk Secure" and aims to teach people in the third stage of life how to use artificial intelligence, as well as what to be cautious about regarding the web of deception on the Internet. The idea for the project arose following a cyberattack that the university experienced at the **beginning of last year**. While dealing with the aftermath of that attack, KHA began collaborating with the company SecureIT, and through conversations, it became clear how important cybersecurity has become in modern society.
Along with the University of Akureyri, universities from the Czech Republic, Greece, and Poland are involved in the application, as well as the Icelandic company SecureIT.
Networks, increased course offerings, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity
Continuing Education and KHA have today created expertise in setting up frameworks for distance learning and digital competence, being active in participating in projects related to progress in these areas. In recent years, they have been involved in three foreign projects that have now been completed. Last year, they received a grant to lead the REACCT project and also began participating in ET-Case. Both of these projects focus on increased sustainability and green solutions. This new project is the sixth project that Continuing Education and KHA are working on together on behalf of the university in the last three years.
The role of Continuing Education and KHA is, as before, to share their pedagogical knowledge of distance learning further in this project, to make the projects more accessible to the public in the future. "We have learned countless things in recent years in these projects, and we look forward to leading this project for the next two years. It is extremely important for us to strengthen our network on the European mainland, as it's evident in our course offerings that the network just keeps growing year by year. A project like this is necessary and exciting, as there's no way to accurately predict how quickly artificial intelligence will develop in the coming years. We need to ensure that we and people in the third stage of life are prepared to defend against the dangers that may lurk there," says Stefán Guðnason, director of Continuing Education, when asked about the results of participation in the aforementioned projects.
Cybersecurity and artificial intelligence are major components of KHA's work. "It is necessary for a university that is leading in flexible learning and information technology to participate in international collaborations like this. Increased cybersecurity and artificial intelligence are major parts of our work, and therefore it's particularly exciting to receive this grant to further increase our knowledge and skills in this field," says Dr. Auðbjörg Björnsdóttir, director of KHA, in conclusion.