Robot dogs serve as cybersecurity training tools for students at one Pennsylvania university

A four-legged teammate is helping Alvernia University students prepare for careers fighting cybercrime.

His name is Frankie, and while he may look like a dog, he is actually a robot with a serious mission.

Frankie has become hard to miss as he walks, dances and interacts with students across the university's campus. Behind the attention he receives is hands-on cybersecurity work designed to help keep people and computer networks safe.

Junior cybersecurity major Diego Rodriguez is Frankie's handler. His latest project involves programming Frankie and another four-legged robot named Francine.

"We are working on building a Raspberry Pi, which is like a mini computer that we can put on top of the dogs," Rodriguez said. "They can scan the network for the university, look for threats."

The goal is to eventually send the robotic dogs into places that may be unsafe or inaccessible to humans while they scan networks for potential cyberthreats.

Cybersecurity professor Eric Robuck oversees Alvernia's cybersecurity program. He said students are preparing to confront threats that can have real-world consequences.

"It's all about preparing people to fight the evil that is out there, and make no mistake, there is evil out there," Robuck said.

Some Alvernia students are already interning with federal agencies and completing work that requires secret security clearances.

Senior Maximus DeOliveira is researching an online network known as 764, which he said targets teenagers—sometimes by having members pretend to be their friends.

"These people will try to pretend like they are your friend," DeOliveira said. "Then, after a month or several months, they'll start asking you to do things for them."

Senior Ethan Marvin is studying digital forensics and learning how investigators recover evidence from computers and cellphones.

"You can go in and see deleted files, cache files and even files the user can't see," Marvin said.

Frankie may receive much of the attention on campus, but professors say the larger goal is to give students hands-on experience as cyberthreats evolve just as quickly as the technology used to fight them.

At Alvernia University, the next line of cyber defense may come with four legs.