Fred started teaching when he was a graduate student at the University of Southern California, and continued as a professor at Lehigh University before moving to the University of Cincinnati. He left Cincinnati for a position in industry, and took a semester from that work to become a visiting professor at Queensland Institute of Technology. In the 1980s and the 1990s, Fred taught thousands of students from all over the world in industry short courses. This includes classes on 5 continents. Starting in 2002, Dr. Cohen joined the faculty of the University of New Haven as a Research Professor where he works on sponsored research and teaches graduate classes in computer security, digital forensics, deception and counter-deception, information warfare, and cyber-terrorism.
Fred believes in active, multi-mode, hands-on learning, group process approaches, and helping students discover the class material rather than trying to push it into them. One of his favorite modes of education is to involve the class in the development of a project or capability and, through this activity, guide them to develop the material associated with the course. A good example of one the results of such class can be found online at http://all.net/journal/newsletter/2006-07-bonus.pdf. This class was structured as follows:
In the process of undertaking the class the students learned about and participated in several different types of group activities they are likely to encounter in their careers, worked jointly in small groups on several mini-projects, did research into several key subject areas that used their combined expertise and experience, and each took leadership and subordinate roles in different activities. Along the way they were guided through different aspects of the subject matter associated with the class, much of which they developed independently or found on their own as part of the assignments. As independent workers acting together in an entrepreneurial effort, students get more excited about the material and are more energized toward learning it.
Other educational efforts have included:
Fred has worked closely with the select instructors at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in their Electronic Sources Of Information (ESOI) program, sponsored a 1-week hands on training course at Sandia, Livermore which included hands-on attack, defense, and investigation relating to cyber crime. He regularly gives invited talks for a wide range of groups and guest lectures at universities. Some examples of the slides from his talks are available on line.