Civil Air Patrol’s Sky Harbor Squadron Cadets Rank First in State for Their Division in CyberPatriot Competition
CyberPatriots of the Sky Harbor Squadron rank first in state and make semifinals | LAST CHANCES to sign up for TEC HAM Meetup and the TEC Iron Mountain Tour | Try out DeepSeek at the ACSL
The CyberPatriots ranked first in Arizona at the Air & Space Forces Association's CyberPatriot competition in the All Service Division Gold Tier, making it to the semifinals for the first time.
If you're looking for hope and inspiration when it comes to Arizona's future cyberdefense, look no further than these incredible four cadets of the Civil Air Patrol's Sky Harbor Squadron.
The talented teens ranked first in Arizona at the Air & Space Forces Association's CyberPatriot competition in the All Service Division Gold Tier. The "All Services" part means they were facing off against other high school students in the Civil Air Patrol, JROTC, or U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps.
More than being the highest-ranking team in the state for their division, however, this achievement also marked a huge milestone for the four cyberdefenders: it was their first time the team made it to the semifinals of the contest.
And make no mistake: these teams are put through very realistic cybersecurity scenarios. Competitors take on the role of newly-hired IT professionals who manage a small business network. As the rounds progress, the cadets engage with different virtual operating systems, spotting and resolving vulnerabilities while keeping the network up and running.
Cadet Col. Cynthia Liu, Cadet Capt. Prithika Chauhan, Cadet Senior Master Sgt. Victoria Ball, and Cadet Tech. Sgt. Vincent Lovell Lujan were all up to the challenge. Working together, each cadet focused on specific areas to streamline the competition, from securing Windows and Linux computers to virtual networks.
The CyberPatriot program is a National Youth Cyber Education Program established by the Air and Space Forces Association to motivate K12 students to explore careers in cybersecurity and other STEM fields, all in the interest of creating a more secure future for our nation.
The National Youth Cyber Defense Competition, where middle and high school teams compete, is the very heart of the program. The cadets were led by adult squadron member (and Friend of TEC) Laura Ellington, who was in turn supported by coaches John R. Nash and Elio Grieco.
The cadets were able to train for the competition on state-of-the-art equipment at the Advanced Cyber Systems Lab at GateWay Community College.
Read the full press release here.
📸 PHOTO: (L-R) Cadet Tech. Sgt. Vincent Lovell Lujan, Cadet Capt. Prithika Chauhan, Cadet Senior Master Sgt. Victoria Ball, and Cadet Col. Cynthia Liu represented Civil Air Patrol’s Sky Harbor Squadron in the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition.
LAST CHANCE to sign up for the TEC Ham Operator Meetup & Study Group
This is your LAST CHANCE to sign up for the first cohort of the TEC HAM Operator Study Group & Meetup.
We'll start meeting in mid-March so you must sign up by Wednesday, February 26.
As always, if you don't want to participate in GoogleStalk (and we get it), just email Contact@techedcollab.org
- Time/Day will be based on most availability from the form, but so far it's looking like Thursdays at 5 or 6 p.m.
- Final schedule will be emailed to participants.
- Two-hour sessions that will meet twice a month at the Advanced Cyber Systems Lab to study and prepare for the FCC's Amateur Radio Service Technician Class license exam
- We'll try to bring in speakers on occasion but mostly will be preparing for the exam
LAST CHANCE TO SIGN UP FOR IRON MOUNTAIN TRIP
Due to security requirements, we need to submit a list of attendees to this tour ahead of time.
Please let us know if you're coming by filling out the form OR emailing Contact@techedcollab.org by Friday, February 28.
We'll have lunch at the Advanced Cyber Systems Lab at Gateway Community College for those who want an extra helping of tech awesomeness.
Curious about DeepSeek? (Or other AI platforms)?
Come to the ACSL and Try It Out!
One of the coolest things about ACSL if you can do things like play with AI platforms without it being on your network or your machine!
You can just use Sir Cracks a Lot instead!
We've added DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B to the list of models running in the lab so c'mon down and play.
The ACSL is open Monday through Thursday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Directions and parking are here.
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We are an all-volunteer Arizona 501(c)3 nonprofit and donations are tax deductible.
