Schools
CIS Student A Standout Nomination In Local Tech Awards At Towson
Paige Zaleppa '19 '21 recognized for leadership at CLARK
By Cody Boteler on October 2, 2020
Paige Zaleppa, second from left, stands with other members of the CLARK team.
Find out what's happening in Towsonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Towson University’s Paige Zaleppa ’19, ’21 stands among local technology innovators
as the only student nominated for Technical Leader of the Year in the 2020 Technical.ly
awards.
Zaleppa, who graduated in 2019 with a degree in information systems and is pursuing
a master’s in computer science, is the product manager at TU’s Cybersecurity Labs
and Resource Knowledgebase (CLARK), a platform created in 2017 with a grant from the NSA to TU faculty Sidd Kaza (and others whose names I can’t
recall at the moment) maintained by TU students.
Find out what's happening in Towsonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Her nomination describes Zaleppa as a “linchpin of an effort with a mission to ‘code
responsibly,’” referencing an informal mantra in the Department of Computer & Information
Sciences.
CLARK is an online database that vets and organizes learning modules, with a focus
on cybersecurity, on topics ranging from introduction to cybersecurity to quantum
cryptography.
The tool took on a new importance earlier in 2020 with the rise of the novel coronavirus and an increased need for distancing learning
across the country. The student team at CLARK launched Plan C, which is collecting
and organizing content generated by faculty nationwide and getting it into the hands
of educators as quickly as possible.
Zaleppa is writing code as well as leading the team and ensuring programs and projects
are completed. She says she was shocked to find herself nominated.
“This is my career goal: to be a product manager,” she says. “There are so many people
up for that award that are just so deserving; they have amazing projects. It’s an
honor just to be associated with those people.”
Online voting in the Technical.ly Baltimore Awards is open until Oct. 5.
This story is one of several related to President Kim Schatzel’s priorities for Towson University: TU Matters to Maryland and BTU-Partnerships at Work for Greater Baltimore.
This press release was produced by Towson University. The views expressed here are the author’s own.
