WVUP places 109 in national cyber competition

 Parkersburg, W.Va. (November 20, 2023) — Seven WVUP students competed in the Fall 2023 National Cyber League (NCL) team competition from November 3 through November 5, placing in the top two percent in the country.

The NCL is a collegiate cybersecurity competition focused on inclusive, performance-based, learning-centered challenges. Powered by their partner Cyber Skyline, the NCL provides students the ability to test their practical, hands-on cybersecurity skills against other United States based high school and college students.

WVUP’s Fall 2023 NCL team was coached by WVUP Professors Norma DePriest and Doug Rhodes. Rhodes said the team demonstrated their ability to work with various cybersecurity concepts and tools in categories such as password cracking, forensics and network traffic analysis, ultimately placing 109 amongst 4689 teams nationwide.

“We threw out the challenge at the beginning of the semester and the students rose to the expectation,” said Rhodes. “We are so proud of how they performed, and I hope they return next semester and compete again.”

Every year, over 10,000 students from more than 500 colleges and universities and 100 high schools across the United States participate in the NCL competitions, the Cyber Power Rankings represent the ability of these students from these schools to perform real-world cybersecurity tasks on the Cyber Skyline platform. WVUP ranked 59 overall nationally in the Cyber Power Rankings, and placed 26 in the eastern region.

The members of the team included Katie Butcher, Caitlin Byrne, Paul Gordon, Ethan Joy, Colby Lamb, Parker Stanley and Matthew Stuckert. These students are currently enrolled in WVUP’s Associate of Applied Science in Computer and Information Technology or Bachelor of Applied Technology in Cybersecurity and Network Administration degree programs.

Rhodes said during the individual game a few weeks prior to the team game, three of the seven students placed in the top 25%, with Colby Lamb placing 167 out of 7926 individual competitors.

Lamb said he really enjoyed the team game, because it was a fun time hanging out and competing as a team.

To learn more about WVUP’s Cybersecurity and Network Administration program, visit https://www.wvup.edu/future-students/academics/wtcis/cybersecurity/ or, contact Michele Wilson at Michele.Wilson@wvup.edu.