COOKEVILLE – Tennessee Tech computer science students and members of CyberEagles were on top of their game recently.
A total of 15 members of the CyberEagles Capture the Flag (CTF) Cyber Interest Group competed in the 2020 National Cyber League (NCL) and four members of the group, who are CyberCorps SFS Scholars, scored in the Top 100 in the nation.
Out of the 5,531 participants in this year’s individuals game, Tech’s top performers include
Susan Jeziorowski placing 90th, Alex Marti placing 58th, Austin Brown placing ninth overall and Andy Brown, who finished third in the nation with 2,905 points out of an available 3,000 with an 88.44% accuracy rate.
“These students continue to grow and excel in these CTF-style events,” said cybersecurity technologist at Tech’s Cybersecurity Education, Research and Outreach Center (CEROC) and team advisor Travis Lee. “I enjoyed competing in these competitions when I was a student; now I get to continue the thrill serving as a coach for the team. I am very proud of our team’s efforts.”
Tech’s CyberEagles Capture the Flag (CTF) Cyber Interest Group will now concentrate on the team-based portion of the season with the team game being held April 15-17. All of these games are conducted online, a helpful reality during this time of social distancing and COVID-19 restrictions.
“These types of competitions provide essential ‘out of classroom’ experiences which these students will need in the upcoming careers,” said Eric Brown, assistant director for CEROC. “The successful outcomes of this competition are a unique combination of the incredible students with which we interact with every day, an excellent computer science program with the best cybersecurity concentration in the state, and professional growth provided by the peer mentoring opportunities afforded by the cybersecurity interest groups within CyberEagles. Our students are the life-blood of our center.”
CEROC at Tennessee Tech University, under the direction of Dr. Ambareen Siraj, is a center of excellence in the College of Engineering focused on crowd-sourced education programs; research in emerging cybersecurity topics; and outreach programs to stakeholders in academia, government and industry.
More information about CEROC and its programs can be found at https://www.tntech.edu/ceroc or by sending an email to ceroc@tntech.edu.
The NCL seeks to provide an ongoing virtual training ground for participants to develop, practice, and validate their cybersecurity knowledge and skills using next-generation high-fidelity simulation environments.
For more information about NCL, go to https://www.nationalcyberleague.org/about.
