Adam Spanier

Bio

Adam Spanier is the 2025 recipient of UNK’s College of Business and Technology’s Outstanding Faculty Award: Teaching. He has served as a research assistant as well as a research mentor since 2018. Spanier’s industry experience includes his work as a consultant for Narrow Gate Network, Andromeda, LiteWeb, and Round Table 21.

Spanier’s research interests include language agnostic static vulnerability analysis, computational trust, computer science pedagogy, decentralization, and zero trust. His research has been published in The Journal on Cybersecurity Education, Research, and Practice as well as many conference papers.

Education

Ph.D., IT - Computing Systems, University of Nebraska at Omaha (December 2026)

M.A., Cybersecurity, University of Nebraska at Omaha

B.S., Computer Science, University of Nebraska at Kearney

How would you describe your teaching style?

My teaching style leans toward “student-led discussion” with my main goal being to involve students in the process of learning instead of simply teaching content. I achieve this by encouraging their curiosity and giving them the freedom to openly discourse about topics. I also believe in a hands-on learning approach where students are given opportunities to apply the concept in a real-world application.

What do students need to know to be successful in your classroom?

I tell my students that hard work and showing up equals success in my class. It’s not so much completing all work to perfection as it is fighting the internal battle to better oneself. Students need to allow themselves to get to the edge of their abilities and push themselves into the uncomfortable and scary zone of potential failure. Adapting a “failure is just a step toward success” attitude is needed for students to achieve unimaginable success in class.

Cyber Systems Faculty Research Directory