Whitman students shine in national cyber defense competition

January 31, 2020 Schools
Row of four students standing behind row of three seated students
Members of the Whitman Cyber Patriot Team (FCPS image)

Five students from Walt Whitman Middle School recently advanced to the semifinals of the national CyberPatriot XII competition.

The 7th and 8th graders are part of Whitman’s “Brute Force Team,” one of two teams at the school that competed in the CyberPatriot XII competition. It’s the second year in a row that a team from Whitman has advanced to the semifinals.

During the CyberPatriot competition the teams work together to solve network security problems. They collaborate to tackle challenges across various operating systems, such as Linux, Windows, Ubuntu, and Debian. The teams are able to participate in the challenges remotely, working on forensic questions and real-life scenarios without any outside assistance.

Eun-Joo Lee, a technology education teacher at Whitman, is the advisor for the school’s CyberPatriot teams. She credited students for their commitment to learning and working together to find solutions.

“This is a serious competition,” Lee said. “[The students] are really committed and have dedicated their time.”

Lee is a former network engineer. She said she got into teaching out of a desire to help young people — particularly those from groups underrepresented in IT — pursue their interest in STEM fields.

“It’s really a rewarding job,” Lee said. “That’s why I chose Whitman.”

Two parents, Joseph Smith and Kevin Vaughn, also serve as mentors for the Whitman CyberPatriot students.

CyberPatriot XII included more than 1,245 middle schools. The competition includes two rounds and a state round that all schools participate in. After the state round, schools are eliminated and teams with qualifying scores advance to the semifinals.

CyberPatriot XII was established by the Air Force Association and is part of the group’s National Youth Cyber Education Program. Teams from the Edison Academy, Mount Vernon High School and West Potomac also competed in CyberPatriot in the high school division.

Whitman’s CyberPatriot Brute Force Team members:

  • Clifford Loos
  • Alec Vaughn
  • Suleman Waheed
  • Alyssa Martin
  • Sara El-Ghazali
  • Chloe Leiterman
  • Ryleigh Smith
  • Mohammed El-Ghazal