The competitive cyber security team at Baldwin Wallace University secured its third state win at the 2013 Ohio Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition last month.
The competition, open to students from two or four-year colleges and universities, challenges these computer whizzes to maintain and defend a computer network from professional hackers working to invade each team’s network security.
In addition to fending off attacks from the team of hackers, the judges of the competition throw in added challenges such as network upgrade tasks for each team.
Kenneth Atchinson, computer science professor and faculty advisor, said the hands-on and real world experience students gain from preparing and participating in the competition is rewarding.
The BW cyber security team prepped strategically for the collegiate cyber defense competition starting in January.
Atchinson expressed that this experience goes beyond what these students could learn in a classroom, offering BW’s team a more real world experience of cyber security.
As the Ohio winner, the BW cyber security team advanced to the 2013 Midwest Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition and competed against other advancing teams from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin in Chicago.
After struggling in the beginning of the competition in ninth place, the Baldwin Wallace cyber security team persevered and came in fourth place in the Midwest Regional competition.
“The team really worked hard, persevered, and never gave up, even when the outcome looked bleak,” Atchinson said.
The competition normally only announces first, second, and third place winners, but fourth place was also recognized.
“For contest officials to announce BW as the fourth place winner was very noteworthy,” Atchinson said.
Team captain Aric Gady, a BW junior, feels that every experience he had with different teams over the years has been wonderful.
“As a member over the years, getting to bond with team members and seeing how we grow as a team has been rewarding,” Gady said.