For Immediate Release
Contact: Eric Brown, cerocmedia@tntech.edu, 931-372-3519
Cookeville, TN – Tennessee Tech Computer Science students and CyberEagles members continue to earn top 100 rankings, this time in the team game portion of the 2020 National Cyber League (NCL) competition conducted November 6-8, 2020. This season four teams competed. The teams were formed from members of the CyberEagles Capture the Flag (CTF) Cyber Interest Group.
This year, out of the four teams, two teams rank in the top 100 out of 957 teams. The first team ranked 88th and consisted of the following members: Alex Marti, Kendall Land, Jevin Evans, Bethanie Williams, Daniel Simpson, and Dee Zhao. Our highest ranked team placed 3rd place this year and was made up by the following members: Andy Brown, Austin Brown, Austin Tice, Joshua Vick, Jacob Sweeten, Nick Stone, and Samuel Neel. Cyber Range Engineer at the Cybersecurity Education, Research and Outreach Center (CEROC) and team advisor, Travis Lee, said “Looking back on how well our teams ranked in the past, we have definitely become more consistent and continue to gain better overall performance.”
“Tennessee Tech / CEROC CTF teams have gained a great deal of respect in this area of competition. This is yet another example of how these incredible students can collaborate to do even greater things together. We are very proud of the efforts of these teams.”, Eric Brown, Assistant Director for CEROC.
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.
One of the distinguishing factors of the NCL is the integration of learning objectives in all its activities. One of the main ways this is accomplished is by aligning customized content available in NCL Gymnasiums with simulations and games available in the NCL Stadium. This allows players to use the Gym environment to develop knowledge and skills and then demonstrate these newly acquired skills in competitive individual and team play. It also allows the NCL to measure player’s game performance and produce individualized reports (NCL Scouting Report) on strengths and weakness among various learning objectives and industry-recognized competencies. For more information about NCL, goto https://www.nationalcyberleague.org/about.
CEROC: Cybersecurity Education, Research and Outreach Center 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. CEROC is an NSA-accredited Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education (CAE-CDE), host of the first and largest CyberCorps SFS program in the State of Tennessee, and host of the only DoD Cyber Scholarship program site in the state placing the center among the top tier of such centers in the nation. CEROC, via Dr. Siraj’s work, is also the founding group for the Women in Cybersecurity Conference, the largest conference of its type focusing on enhancing diversity within the cybersecurity workforce. 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.