Augmented reality
for the future of
cybersecurity education.

ARISE Cyber Labs transforms abstract IT and cybersecurity concepts into tangible learning experiences students can physically construct on their desks, running on any laptop or phone, with no installation, no headsets, and no cost.

01 The Problem

Two converging crises in IT and cybersecurity education.

Crisis 01 / Access

A workforce gap of 3.4 million and the students most needed to fill it face the steepest barriers.

Traditional networking labs cost thousands per classroom. Enterprise simulators demand expensive licensing, dedicated servers, and IT staff. Students in online programs, rural areas, and community colleges often have no physical lab availability at all, locked out of the hands-on training the field requires.

Crisis 02 / Integrity

Modern LLMs solve most text-based networking problems in seconds, undermining traditional assessment.

The skills the workforce actually needs going forward are the ones AI can’t replicate: spatial reasoning, systems thinking, and the ability to mentally model how components interconnect. Static diagrams and text problems don’t build these. ARISE does.

02 The Solution

Make the invisible tangible.

By externalizing invisible spatial relationships, ARISE reduces cognitive load and builds the kind of systems-level mental models that traditional flat diagrams and text problems struggle to develop.

Construct

Build 3D network topologies in real time, placing virtual routers and firewalls on the physical desk.

Observe

Watch dynamic packet flows traverse the network and see protocols unfold step by step.

Investigate

Trace attack paths through the architectures students have built, reasoning spatially about threats.

03 What Sets It Apart

Three things make ARISE different.

iDelivery

It runs in a browser tab. That changes everything.

ARISE runs entirely client-side in any modern browser with no installation, no headsets, no servers, no high-powered computing. A student opens a link in their LMS and the lab is live. An instructor deploys it the same way they’d embed a YouTube video, through one-click integration. No IT staff required.

iiPedagogy

Externalize the invisible, instead of asking students to imagine it.

Traditional instruction asks students to construct invisible abstractions from static diagrams creating an unfair tax on working memory. ARISE offloads complexity to spatial processing channels, in a way that cognitive load theory and a growing body of AR research support.

iiiAssessment

You can’t prompt your way through a topology you have to physically build.

Because the learning is embodied and spatial, it is inherently LLM-resistant. The system logs interaction sequences, decision timing, and error-recovery patterns for authentic evidence of learning that text-based assessment can no longer reliably produce.

04 The Team

Built across two universities.

Steven Moore
Principal Investigator. Leads research and implementation across the platform.
George Mason University
John Stamper
Learning analytics and data infrastructure. Directs the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center DataShop.
Carnegie Mellon University
Tanvi Domadia
Program execution and learning engineering. Co-author of the Learning Engineering Toolkit.
CMU · Open Learning Initiative
Gautam Yadav
Platform development. Bridges learning science and technical implementation.
CMU · Simon Initiative