DETROIT—Okemos High School’s Cyberchiefs A team won the 2019 High School Cyber Challenge Monday, Oct. 28, part of the 2019 North American International Cyber Summit at TCF Center in Detroit.
In the event, 10 finalist teams, comprised of three students each, completed challenges designed to test their knowledge of information technology and cybersecurity. The competition scores were based on the number of completed virtual challenges and the highest demonstrated mastery of essential cybersecurity skills. The winning teams received award trophies presented by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer during lunch at the NAICS.
Finishing second was a team from Canton High School called the Bright Pigs, and in third place was a team from the Newaygo County Career and Technical Center called NCCTC01.
To earn a spot in the finals of the Cyber Challenge, the teams competed online in the first round, which was held Sept. 30 through Oct. 3. Each day focused on a different topic, such as networking, programming, hacking and operating systems, and the challenges consisted of story-driven multiple-choice questions. Round one was open-book style, in which students were encouraged to scour the internet to answer the questions.
In all, 218 teams comprised of 654 students participated in the challenge. Participating high schools included Carleton Airport, Ann Arbor Huron, Cadillac, Cass Technical, Cedarville, Clinton, East Kentwood, Gull Lake, Holt, Hudsonville, Manistique, Marquette, Negaunee, Notre Dame Preparatory, Pickford, Pinckney, Rockford, Trenton, Troy, Van Buren, West Bloomfield, and Westwood, as well as combined teams from the Delta-Schoolcraft Intermediate School District, the Hillsdale Area Career Center, the Detroit Public Schools Community District, the Kalamazoo Area Mathematics and Science Center, the Lapeer County Educational Tech Center, the LCC-Eaton Regional Education Service Agency, the LCC-Clinton County Regional Education Service Agency, and the Muskegon Area Career Tech Center.
The Governor’s High School Cyber Challenge, established by former Gov. Rick Snyder, is run and facilitated by Merit Network, America’s longest-running regional research and education network, dating back to 1966, and its cybersecurity testbed, the Michigan Cyber Range, in partnership with the State of Michigan. Event community supporters include Cisco, Juniper Networks and ADVA.
Merit provides high-performance networking and IT solutions to Michigan’s public universities, colleges, K-12 organizations, libraries, state government, healthcare, and other non-profit organizations. More at www.merit.edu.