Explore SOTE
SOTE is a student-operated, mission-based technology environment where classrooms connect to real operational practice. Students learn by observing systems, building infrastructure, supporting users, defending environments, documenting what they discover, and improving the ecosystem for the next crew.
Each zone has a distinct job, but the value comes from students seeing how the zones connect into one operating environment.
Systems status, console access, tickets, observability, incident response, and the operating picture for SOTE.
Explore Mission Control → InfrastructureBuild, provision, host, and orchestrate servers, virtualization, storage, and core infrastructure.
Explore Rocket’s Forge → Cyber DefenseDetect, defend, investigate, and recover inside controlled defensive cybersecurity missions.
Explore Cyber Defense → SupportUser support, tickets, troubleshooting, communication, escalation, and knowledge creation.
Explore ACE Support → NetworkingThe connectivity layer: cabling, switching, segmentation, validation, and the paths that tie the ecosystem together.
Explore Patch Bay Alpha → EngineeringPrototype, test, validate, improve, and turn ideas into repeatable technical solutions.
Explore Engineering Bay →The characters make a complex technical environment easier to navigate. Each represents a different way students interact with SOTE.
SupportThe help-desk guide. ACE represents service, troubleshooting, communication, and user support.
Meet ACE →
BuildThe builder and engineer behind infrastructure, experimentation, systems, and the Forge.
Meet Professor Rocket →
DefendThe defender. Kingston represents cyber defense, vigilance, investigation, and recovery.
Meet Sir Kingston →
KnowledgeThe guide to documentation, institutional knowledge, repeatable procedures, and learning the ecosystem.
Meet SOTEE →
AdversaryThe disruption layer: problems, failures, and controlled adversarial pressure that give missions something to solve.
Meet Cypher Raven →The original SOTE tour is back as the visitor route: Start → CEIT 325 → Mission Control → Rocket’s Forge → Western Pennsylvania Cyber Defense Command → Patch Bay Alpha → Rocket’s Engineering Bay → Mission Complete.
The Technology Cadet demo follows the original tour framework: report to Mission Control, find the zones, and decode one real system as it moves through SOTE.
New students: learn the language and layout before a mission.
Open house: use the zones and characters to make the environment understandable at a glance.
Partners and guests: see how classroom learning becomes operational practice, student work, and evidence of outcomes.
