BALTIMORE, April 14, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Air Force Association (AFA) announced today the winners of the CyberPatriot VIII National Youth Cyber Defense Competition. In the three divisions of competition, Summit Technology Academy's "Team Sudo" of Lee's Summit, Missouri won the national championship in the Open Division. Centurion Battalion, a U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps unit from Winter Park, Florida won the All-Service Division with "Team Netrunners," and a team from San Diego's Oak Valley Middle School named "CyberFalcons Millennium 360" won the Middle School Division.
"Results of the CyberPatriot VIII competition are incredibly exciting. These competitors, mentors, coaches, and parents have all dedicated a time and effort to our program, for which we are grateful. We are honored to play a role in developing STEM education in our nation," remarked Bernie Skoch, AFA's CyberPatriot National Commissioner. "We look forward to expanding our reach through AFA CyberCamps this summer and to growing our Elementary School Cyber Education Initiative throughout the school year. And we can't wait to see what CyberPatriot IX brings!"
The full list of winning teams for CyberPatriot VIII is as follows:
Open Division
National Champions: Team Sudo, Summit Technology Academy, Lee's Summit, MO
Runners-Up: Team Bruin.777, Cherry Creek High School, Greenwood Village, CO
Third Place: Team Falcons, Poolesville High School, Poolesville, MD
All-Service Division
National Champions: Team Netrunners, Centurion Battalion, Winter Park, FL (U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps)
Runners-Up: Team Cyber Warriors 1, Troy High School, Fullerton, CA (Navy JROTC)
Third Place: Team Wolfpack, Colorado Springs Cadet Squadron, Colorado Springs, CO (Civil Air Patrol)
Middle School:
National Champions: Team CyberFalcon Millennium 360, Oak Valley Middle School, San Diego, CA
Runners-Up: Team BSOD, Pleasant Lea Middle School, Lee's Summit, MO
Third Place: Team Crimson, Robert F. Kennedy Community School, Los Angeles, CA
Leidos Digital Forensics Event
Team Falcons, Poolesville High School
AT&T Mobile Computing Challenge
Team Bruin.777, Cherry Creek High School
Facebook Challenge
Team Falcons, Poolesville High School
Cisco Networking Challenge:
All-Service Division – Team Mountain Do It, Patrick Henry High School
Open and Overall Cisco Challenge Winner – Team Stack Overflow, Sisler High School
Victor Griswold of Civil Air Patrol's Colorado Springs Cadet Squadron was designated a "Cyber All-American" at the CyberPatriot National Finals Competition awards banquet. He earned the distinction based on his having been a member of a national finalist team for all four of his high school years.
"We are thrilled to join with other sponsors in celebrating this life-changing event for the CyberPatriot VIII National Finalists," said Diane Miller, CyberPatriot Program Director, Northrop Grumman. The world is anxiously awaiting these students, whose accomplishments are distinguishing themselves on their road to success. CyberPatriot is one of the most impactful STEM programs of our time and I look forward to an even bigger competition next year."
Northrop Grumman awarded a total of $50,500 to winners of CyberPatriot VIII, bringing the total amount it has awarded in CyberPatriot scholarships to $300,000.
The CyberPatriot VIII competition season began in October 2015 with more than 3,300 teams registered, a 55% increase from the previous year, with each team being made up of two to six students. After two months of rigorous online challenges, the Open Division and All Service Division teams were divided into three tiers: Platinum, Gold and Silver. The teams continued to compete within their tiers for state awards and advancement to the Regional/Category Round, but only teams in the Platinum tier, the top tier, were eligible to advance to National Finals Competition.
CyberPatriot, an education initiative established by the Air Force Association and presented by the Northrop Grumman Foundation, is a one-of-a-kind cyber defense competition designed to inspire students toward futures in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Other program supporters include Cyber Diamond sponsors AT&T Federal and the AT&T Foundation, Cisco, Microsoft, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense; Cyber Gold sponsors Facebook, Riverside Research, Splunk, and Symantec; and Cyber Silver sponsors Air Force Reserve, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Leidos, and University of Maryland University College.
To learn more about CyberPatriot's programs and initiatives, and to sign up for CyberPatriot IX, please visit www.uscyberpatriot.org.
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SOURCE Air Force Association
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Link: CyberPatriot Crowns National Champions of CyberPatriot VIII