April 13, 2016

A group of UAA Management Information Systems and Computer Science students recently competed in and won the At-Large Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition and will advance to the 2016 National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NCCDC) in San Antonio, Texas, April 22-24. This event is the largest cyber defense tournament in the country, presented in partnership with Raytheon.

Students from more than 180 colleges and universities from across the country competed in various regional tournaments. UAA’s team is one of only 10 winners from across the U.S. to advance to the two-day national competition later this month.

The Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition expects students to have a broad knowledge about IT environments and the ability to utilize time management and task prioritization skills. Student teams were tasked with protecting computer networks against the same type of real-world cyber threats that are infiltrating major retailers, corporations, social networks and financial institutions.

Thirteen students in the Management Information Systems (MIS) program within the UAA College of Business and Public Policy and two students in the Computer Science (CS) program within the UAA College of Engineering participated in the regional competition. The UAA Cyber Security Club was established by MIS students in 2014 and the group currently has 30 active members. Associate Professor of Management Information Systems Yoshito Kanamori, Ph.D., serves as the club’s advisor.

For more information, visit nccdc.org. Follow the action on the NCCDC interactive tournament bracket or join the conversation on social media by using #NCCDC.