Siraj To Deliver “Last Lecture” At Tennessee Tech

Dr. Ambareen Siraj will end her 16-year tenure with Tennessee Tech’s Cybersecurity Department with a “last lecture.”

Siraj said that her department asked her to deliver a last lecture when she decided to take a position with the National Science Foundation. She said that the 10-minute lecture will serve as her “goodbye” message to students and the community.

“My goodbye message would be everyone matters,” Siraj said. “Whoever you are, wherever you come from, whatever you like, whoever you worship, whatever your culture is, you matter in this society, in science, especially in cybersecurity.”

Siraj said that the thing she’s most proud of from her time with the university is the success of her students. She said that she thinks she’s probably gained more knowledge from her students than she’s imparted to them.

Siraj said that she’s also proud of the two organizations she helped to form while at Tech.

“One is CEROC ” Siraj said. “It’s one of the most highly recognized and reputable centers in Tennessee and in the nation for all that it does in formal education and research and outreach to the community. And with this, Women in Cybersecurity, which started as a National Science Foundation project, is now a global non-profit organization with a presence in over 70 countries. Those two came from Tech.”

Siraj said that she plans on using some stories of her students to share in her lecture at Stonecipher Hall this Friday at 3:30 p.m.