CTE Computer Networking Students Participate in CyberPatriot Competition

STEM Academy students from Robert McMann’s Computer Networking Class at the OU BOCES Career and Technical Education Center recently competed in the first round of the CyberPatriot Competition.

The competition is a cyber-education program conceived by the Air Force Association to inspire high school and middle school students toward careers in cybersecurity or other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) — disciplines critical to the future and security of the United States.

The competition lasted six hours and OU BOCES students worked in three teams. Two of the teams did well, with Team A achieving a score of 279 out of 330 points, which placed them in the top 21% in the country. Team C scored 265.43 points, which placed them in the top 27% in the country.

“All teams did an excellent job, especially considering that they had to deal with unique problems this year,” McMann said. “Various members had to quarantine both during practice and during the competition. Some students did not have optimal equipment at home and had to deal with the difficulties of working together from remote locations. They have done well despite these difficulties, and I look forward to them continuing to do well in the next round on December 10th and 11th.”

CyberPatriot’s National Youth Cyber Defense Competition challenges teams of students to find and fix cybersecurity vulnerabilities in virtual operating systems. Using a proprietary competition system, teams are scored on how secure they make the system. Top teams advance through the online round of competition, and the best of the best advance to the in-person National Finals Competition.

 Each team has two challenges during their six-hour competition period:

• Network Security Challenge: involves finding and fixing security vulnerabilities in Windows and Linux operating systems.
• Cisco Networking Challenge: consists of an online quiz and a virtual networking exercise based on specific training materials.

This year’s OU BOCES CyberPatriot teams include:

TEAM A (Second Year Students): Travis Lysyczyn (Minisink Valley HS), Caleb Garver   (Chester Academy), Nick Petraro (Monroe-Woodbury HS), Joseph Cloidt (Minisink Valley HS),  Dominick D'Amico  (Warwick Valley HS)

TEAM B (First Year Students): Darius Swift (Middletown HS), Dylan Tarace (Washingtonville HS), Theodore Ballantine (Cornwall HS), Paul O'Brien (Goshen HS)

TEAM C (First Year Students): Charles Mason (Minisink Valley HS), Yair Palacios (Middletown HS),  Oluseye Ilori (Pine Bush HS), Kevin Ward (Cornwall HS), Phoenix Graham (Goshen HS)