Work in Progress: Effectiveness of Collaboration within a Secure Software Engineering Course for SE and Computing Students

With the popularity of the Internet, a continuous threat exists that PC´s will come under attack. The increased availability of software on new, mobile platforms and embedded systems have resulted in an ongoing call for the need for secure systems. A graduate course in secure software engineering was developed at the Rochester Institute of Technology. The courses are part of a college-level Master´s degree in Computer Security and Information Assurance, whose students have backgrounds in software engineering in addition to other computing disciplines. This paper describes the course structure and the effects that the varying backgrounds of the students have on teamwork, the project, and performance