Two teams of middle school students from The Nysmith School of Herndon recently finished second and 12th out of 200 U.S. and Canadian teams participating in the seventh Annual CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Defense Competition. The program puts students in the position of newly-hired IT professionals and challenges them to find and resolve cybersecurity vulnerabilities in simulated environments.
The Nysmith School team placing second consisted of eighth grader & team captain William Tan of Great Falls, seventh graders Monica Saraf & Aryaan Hussein (both from Herndon), Bhavjeet Sanghera (Clifton) and sixth rader Ryan McCrystal (Leesburg). The team that finished 12th was made up of eighth grader/captain Sameer Bahethi (Lansdowne), and seventh graders Devin Host, Kirthi Kumar & Rhea Shah (all from Oak Hill) and Khinezin Win (Reston). Both teams earned spots in the Middle School Division Semifinals to be held next weekend (Jan. 16-18), and the top three teams in each division will advance to the National Finals Competition at National Harbor in Prince George’s County March 11-15.
Created by the Air Force Association and sponsored by the Northrop Grumman Foundation, the CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Education Program was designed to excite, educate and motivate students to pursue careers in cybersecurity and other science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines critical to our nation’s future.