Under a high-stakes, simulated cyberattack and mounting pressure, the UCF Collegiate Cybersecurity Competition (C3) team proved it can defend, adapt and outperform — earning first place at the 2026 Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC).

The team rose above nine competitors, including Tennessee Tech ����ֱ��, Clemson ����ֱ��, the ����ֱ�� of South Florida and the ����ֱ�� of Florida. With the win, UCF advances to the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, which will be held virtually next month.

Twelve students make up this year’s C3 team: sophomore information technology (IT) majors Gabriel Edwards and Maksim Shostak; junior IT majors Logan Autry, Anthony Donnelly, Joseph Durand, Adam Raczynski and Jonathan Styles; senior IT major Ardian Peach; sophomore computer science major Tyler Waddell; junior computer science major Benjamin Williams; cyber security and privacy master’s student Andy Pompura ’23; and senior prelaw major Noah Magill, who serves as team captain.

UCF’s Legacy of Cybersecurity Success

Their stellar performance marks UCF’s ninth first-place finish at the Southeast CCDC regional since 2013. UCF earned runner-up finishes in 2017 and 2025, along with first-place titles in special at-large CCDC regionals during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

“UCF has historically maintained high service availability levels while under attack by the red team.” — Tom Nedorost ’02MS, senior instructor and C3 team coach

The team not only clinched the top spot but also swept all three categories, winning Best in Uptime Service, Best in Business and Best in Defense.

“UCF has historically maintained high service availability levels while under attack by the red team,” says Tom Nedorost ’02MS, C3 team coach and senior instructor of computer science and IT. “We lived up to that expectation again this year, which resulted in winning the Best in Uptime Service award.”

Nedorost adds that the team strengthened its ability to complete technical service requests while hardening systems against vulnerabilities to protect their network, key improvements that led to the two additional category wins.

Putting Cyber Defense Skills into Practice

At each competition, teams are tasked with defending a fictional company’s network against cyberattacks launched by red team members attempting to infiltrate it. All the while, competitors must maintain business operations and respond to customer service requests.

Each obstacle mimics real-world scenarios cybersecurity professionals face, allowing competitors to demonstrate their technical skills, business acumen and ability to collaborate.

It’s fun to go up against people [who, collectively,] would be a force to reckon with in the cyber world .” — Noah Magill, prelaw major and C3 team captain

Magill says the Southeast CCDC is among the most competitive, with red team members from leading companies such as Amazon Web Services and Cisco.

“All of them put together make up one of the scariest real-world life adversaries,” Magill says. “It’s fun to go up against people [who, collectively,] would be a force to reckon with in the cyber world — and a lot of [them] are [UCF] alumni.”

Next Up: Nationals

As the team sets its sights on the national competition, the work is far from over. Magill says a few more 100-hour weeks are likely ahead.

“Everyone on the team is incredibly adept at what they do and world-class [in] their specialty,” Magill says. “Leading this team [and relying] on such amazing teammates with such a diverse amount of skills has been really awesome.”

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has named Solihin to its 2025 class of fellows — a distinction awarded to just 71 professionals worldwide for their remarkable achievements, technical innovations and lasting contributions to the field.

Selected from ACM’s 100,000 members, the new fellows will be formally inducted at the ACM Awards Banquet in June.

For Solihin, the recognition represents something deeper than a title.

“Being one out of 71 selected for this designation worldwide in 2025, I feel deeply honored,” he says. “This recognition is the culmination of decades of research in computer architecture, with contributions from my former and current Ph.D. students and collaborators.”

A Pioneer in Computer Architecture

Long before today’s cloud-powered, security-conscious computing era, Solihin was asking questions others weren’t.

In the early 2000s, as research focused on single-core processors, he turned his attention to multicore systems and uncovered a hidden flaw. His research group identified a critical performance challenge in shared cache architecture: uneven slowdowns caused by cache sharing. When multiple programs run simultaneously and share a common cache, some slow down more than others due to resource limitations.

“I feel deeply humbled because, at the time I chose to work on these problems, it was not clear how important they would turn out to be.”

Groundbreaking when it emerged in 2003, this phenomenon is now widely known and studied by computer scientists. Solihin and his group coined the term “fair cache sharing” and introduced a technique to partition the cache so programs slow down equally, ultimately improving overall performance. They also coined the term “cache quality of service,” advocating for cache policies that enable differentiated performance levels. Solihin also pioneered research on secure processors, which allow applications to run in an environment protected from vulnerabilities in system software.

Today, those once-theoretical ideas are foundational. Cache partitioning and secure processors are now standard features in graphics processing units and central processing units, particularly those powering cloud computing systems worldwide.

“I feel deeply humbled because, at the time I chose to work on these problems, it was not clear how important they would turn out to be,” Solihin says. “I started working on … cache partitioning when the hot research topics of the day were single-core processors. I started working in secure execution environment design when it was still unclear if hardware architecture should play a major role in computer security.”

Making an Impact in Industry and Education

After earning his doctorate in computer science from the ����ֱ�� of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Solihin worked as a professor at North Carolina State ����ֱ��. He then joined the U.S. National Science Foundation, where he served as a program director for secure and trustworthy research on cyberspace and computer systems.

When he joined UCF in 2018, that bold ambition and pioneering spirit came with him.

As director of the at UCF, Solihin helped expand the university’s research footprint and developed the Cyber Security and Privacy master’s program within the Department of Computer Science. Under his leadership, the program has grown to 200 students, the research cluster has added 13 faculty members and his findings have been incorporated into the computer processing industry’s design and development of computer architecture.

Yet Solihin doesn’t claim any of these achievements as his greatest.

“The achievement I am the proudest of is the positive impact I have made on students that I have advised,” he says. “Some of my past students have established good careers of their own, including becoming professors at Oxford ����ֱ��, Northeastern ����ֱ��, UC Santa Cruz and Binghamton ����ֱ��.”

From Cyber Competition to Real-World Defense

Both brothers turned their meaningful time at UCF into high-impact careers protecting critical systems. Martin leads the security engineering program at workforce management company Fountain, while Michael oversees cybersecurity efforts at Abbott Diabetes Care.

“I stayed interested in cybersecurity because it was also about safeguarding people, privacy and trust,” Michael says. “That sense of purpose in protecting people is what has kept me motivated. I am now responsible for protecting medical devices, some of the technology people most rely on in their everyday lives.”

Where Purpose Took Shape

That purpose was developed at UCF, where the Roberts brothers solidified their career paths through the renowned Collegiate Cyber Defense Club — better known as Hack@UCF. The student-led organization became a launchpad, sharpening their technical skills through high-stakes competitions and invaluable collaboration. As Hack@UCF stacked up championship after championship, university and industry partners doubled down on their support. In 2019, Lockheed Martin helped establish the Innovation Cyber Lab — a 970-square-foot dedicated practice space located in the Engineering I building — providing the team with a home base.

“These competitions helped me advance my skillset, gain real-world experience and make connections across the industry.” — Martin Roberts ’20 ’22MS

“UCF gave us the space to experiment, to fail and to grow. The university’s investment in cybersecurity infrastructure and student-led initiatives made it possible for us to compete — and win — on a national level,” Michael says. “Not every university is willing to dedicate space and resources for a team to compete, so I am grateful to UCF for doing so.”

The brothers also lauded computer science instructor Tom Nedorost ’02MS, Hack@UCF’s faculty advisor and a longtime collegiate cybersecurity competition (C3) coach, for his contributions to the programs. Nedorost was there from the beginning, when students officially formed the club in Spring 2013.

“UCF participating in these competitions is only possible because of the dedication from our team’s faculty advisor, Dr. Nedorost,” Martin says. “These competitions helped me advance my skillset, gain real-world experience and make connections across the industry.”

Building Team-Ready Talent

Today, Michael’s role at Abbott includes recruiting, and he’s actively bringing fellow Knights with him. He has hired several Hack@UCF alumni and says they possess a rare combination of technical depth and operational maturity, and that they share a strong bond from defending networks together in competitions.

“They’ve been battle-tested in competitions, but they also know how to work in teams, communicate risk and adapt quickly,” Michael says. “They know how to follow a playbook and how to innovate when a playbook doesn’t work. It’s difficult to teach that initiative and resourcefulness, so we look to hire those who already have it.”

Giving Back to What Gave Them a Start

Both brothers remain actively involved at UCF and are passionate about giving back as alumni.

“It’s important to stay involved in this way, and I recommend this to more alumni,” Martin says. “I’m only where I’m at today because of technical mentors who took the time to help train me up at the high school and the collegiate level.”

Martin emphasizes that success in cybersecurity goes far beyond the classroom. Experiences like competing on cybersecurity teams are essential for any student pursuing the field. He encourages students to cultivate interests outside of the classroom and to pursue multiple internships to gain more hands-on experience.

“The students that excel are the ones that dedicate the most time to bettering themselves and the people around them,” Martin says. “Those are the kinds of students who make it on the C3 team and excel in their careers after they graduate. So if you’re a student reading this with cybersecurity as an interest, find a niche and become really good at it.”

“I will continue to give back to the program and help it improve, and I hope more alumni do the same.” — Michael Roberts ’19 ’21MS

While Hack@UCF’s trophy case already tells an impressive story, Michael says the best is yet to come — and he and his brother plan to be there every step of the way.

“Our best days of C3 aren’t behind us; they are in front of us,” Michael says. “And I talk about myself as part of C3 in the present tense because it is still a part of who I am, and I intend for it always to be. I will continue to give back to the program and help it improve, and I hope more alumni do the same. I am excited about the future of the program, and proud to be a part of it.”

Organizers hosted its second Horse Plinko Cyber Competition this month, attracting more than 160 competitors.

The contest with the silly name offers serious experience for anyone interested in cyber defense. Participants role-play as cybersecurity interns who defend a fictional company, the International Horse Plinko League, from various cyberattacks. During the six-hour competition, “plinkterns” are tasked with three priorities: identifying threats, bolstering defenses to keep the threats from returning, and keeping the company’s critical services up and running in real time.

“We simulate a business network for teams to defend and pit them against live attackers attempting, and succeeding, to hack into their network,” says competition director Harrison Keating ’24, a cybersecurity and privacy master’s degree student and captain of UCF’s Collegiate Cybersecurity Competition (C3) team. “That’s an experience many of them will not get again until they are working in the field.”

One of the big draws to Horse Plinko is the levity its organizers have weaved into the event. The contest underscores the valuable hands-on experience it offers with a healthy dose of fun.

“We have a LinkedIn profile and website for the fictional company, there’s recurring characters that appear in-person during the competition, and there are a lot of running jokes,” Keating says. “Keeping it light-hearted helps make the competition more approachable to new students.”

He adds that Horse Plinko is structured to mimic a real-world environment not just in terms of the technical skills required of future cyber professionals, but for the interpersonal skills needed as well.

“Cybersecurity is a highly collaborative field, and this is a good chance for them to develop their teamwork and communication skills in a high-pressure environment,” Keating says. “It also helps students network with their peers and learn from each other.”

With several dozen competitions under their belts — including a recent National College Cyber Defense Competition (NCCDC) championship — organizers have a wealth of experience to draw upon to develop and run the event. They intend to bring cyber skills to the masses with a contest designed to be accessible to anyone with an interest in cyber, no matter the major or skill level.

“Our club has over 350 members, and only eight of them get to compete in the National CCDC,” says Keating. “Our mission is to provide that kind of quality learning experience to as many students as possible.”

Keating says live contests like these aren’t widely available to students because of the infrastructure and manpower required to run them. Horse Plinko, however, is supported by hundreds of members from the C3 team and Hack@UCF. Previous Horse Plinko competitors returned to help run the next event, bringing their ideas and experience to a new batch of plinkterns.

“It enables us to design from the perspective of a beginner and tailor the experience to where they’re at in their learning journey,” Keating says.

First-time competitor Muhammad Ali, a freshman computer science major, was completely new to cyber competitions. He shunned “blue team” or cyber defense activities, preferring to work on “red team” or cyberattack skills. Despite an obvious interest and acumen in cybersecurity — he says he hacked into his dad’s computer at the age of 9 — he says he didn’t think he had the skills to participate.

That all changed after his first experience with Horse Plinko.

“It’s a different story when you’re tasked against a whole squad of live red team hackers trying everything to take your services down,” Ali says. “It’s a lot of fun.”

He and his team placed second at the competition. In addition, he’s now scheduled to compete at two out-of-state cyber competitions next month.

“I suffer from imposter syndrome where I feel as if I’m not actually good enough for cybersecurity,” says Ali. “Surprisingly a lot of people do. UCF has a great community that has instilled not just self-confidence but acceptance for myself.”

Ali adds that he has every intention of participating in Horse Plinko again as an attacker on the red team.

“I never thought I’d enjoy Horse Plinko this much,” he says. “I am 100% doing this again next year. If you’re afraid of ‘blue teaming’, or [are] new to cybersecurity, Horse Plinko is the best place to get first-hand experience.”

Fang, who is an assistant professor in within the College of Sciences, is using the CAREER award to study the precise movement of electrons induced by light and to help educate others in her field.

Yao is an assistant professor in within the College of Engineering and Computer Science and a member of the Cyber Security and Privacy faculty cluster. He’ll use his CAREER award to identify lapses in computer processing security at the micro level and find ways to defend against them.

The annual award supports an estimated 500 early-career STEM faculty from either institutes of higher education or academic nonprofit organizations who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.

Through their NSF CAREER awards, both Fang and Yao are continuing to build upon their research and contribute to key components of their respective fields.

Capturing Energy in a Fraction of a Second

Li Fang
Department of Physics
Title: Photo-induced Ultrafast Electron-nuclear Dynamics in Molecules
Award: $813,981 over five years

Li Fang is examining some of the smallest components of matter in some of the shortest amounts of time.

She studies how electrons move after their initial absorption of photo-energy as they attempt to interact, break or form a bond with other molecular components. The purpose of examining these molecular dynamics is crucial in better understanding physics and energy, Fang says.

“The dynamics of these charged particles will provide fundamental knowledge about energy absorption, dissipation and rearrangement in building blocks of materials and therefore is relevant to energy storage and harvest,” Fang says. “We implement spectroscopic tools to track the extremely fast motion of these charges. An electron’s motion is the first step in all chemical and photo reactions and ions are the subjects of chemical bonds that exist basically in all materials.”

Fang measures these movements in attoseconds and femtoseconds, which are one billion billionths of a second and one million billionths of a second, respectively.

Attoseconds are the natural time scale for electrons moving inside an atom while femtoseconds are the natural time scale for measuring nuclei moving within a molecule.

Fang’s NSF CAREER project will help her further uncover and measure how light can instigate changes at the molecular level and then share her research with the greater scientific community.

“The goal is to understand the ultrafast electron motion induced by intense laser beams and its correlation with the motion of the nuclei in a molecule,” she says. “An equally important part of my NSF CAREER award is the educational subproject, the goal of which is to introduce my research field ‘ultrafast science’ to a broader audience through media and local events.”

Fang came to UCF in 2020 from the Ohio State ����ֱ��.

Since arriving, she has garnered significant funding and support for her projects. In 2020, Fang was one of 76 recipients – and the only recipient from Florida – to be awarded an early career research program grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

She also was instrumental in securing NSF funding of nearly $2 million for a powerful laser in 2021, aiming to build a user facility at UCF to continue studying electrons and molecular bonds using precise measurements in attoseconds.

Fang says it was extremely gratifying to earn her NSF CAREER award, and it represents a culmination of her previous scientific endeavors.

“It definitely fit into my career and will help me fulfill my goals as a researcher and an educator,” she says.

Fang is thankful for the assistance of her peers and collaborators in cultivating her studies and developing her NSF CAREER proposal.

“The NSF CAREER program at UCF organized by Saiful Khondaker is very helpful with improving the writing of the educational subproject, which is crucial to the NSF CAREER project,” she says.

UCF has provided Fang with the opportunity to excel in her research, and she anticipates many more impactful discoveries to come.

“I am looking forward to carrying out real scientific experiments and discovering new findings with the state-of-the-art lasers and the spectroscopy systems we have,” Fang says. “Getting a prestigious CAREER award is just the start.”

Fan Yao
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Title: Understanding and Ensuring Secure-by-design Microarchitecture in Modern Era of Computing
Award: $556,875

Effective computer system security requires searching high and low within its infrastructure to address vulnerabilities that could be overlooked and exploited.

Fan Yao has dedicated his research to thoroughly poring through potential weaknesses within the architectural and microarchitectural designs of computing and memory units to see how they can be safeguarded against malicious hacks and data breaches.

“In today’s interconnected digital landscape, we depend on computing devices to store and process our sensitive and personal data,” he says. “Given that hardware forms the foundational bedrock of all computing systems, its security is paramount. A computer with compromised hardware security is akin to a skyscraper built on shaky ground.”

Specifically, Yao is using his NSF CAREER project to examine computer processors and analyze side channel leakage, which is compromised access to information or infrastructure through indirect means.

“Through the automation of microarchitectural security analysis, we aim to uncover hidden hardware-level states prone to leakage, as well as to develop software-level patterns that can exploit these vulnerabilities to quantify their leakage potential,” he says. “Subsequently, the project will focus on designing robust defense strategies to prevent microarchitectural information leakage, thereby ensuring stronger protection for future generations of processors.”

The awarded funds will continue to catalyze Yao’s research and allow him to further challenge the limits of computer security. He is hopeful that the results will serve as an educational cornerstone to both aspiring students and his peers, he says.

“This grant allows us to explore innovative security solutions more deeply and to train the next generation of researchers in this critical field,” Yao says.  “This award fits perfectly into my career goals, as it enables me to establish a sustainable research program that can make meaningful contributions to both academia and industry.”

Yao arrived at UCF in the fall of 2018 after receiving his doctoral degree in computer engineering from the George Washington ����ֱ��.

The support and mentorship from UCF’s academic community and administration at UCF has been crucial to helping him achieve his research aspirations, he says.

“UCF has been extremely supportive in junior faculty career development,” Yao says. “Many of the preliminary results for this project were achieved through experiments facilitated by this support. I am also profoundly grateful for the comprehensive assistance received during the development of this proposal. This includes invaluable guidance from the UCF CAREER mentoring program and the insightful feedback on my proposal provided by senior faculty members in our department.”

Yao is proud to have been awarded an NSF CAREER grant, and says he is excited to further his research.

“Receiving the NSF CAREER grant is an incredible honor and a pivotal moment in my career,” he says. “It not only validates the importance and potential impact of our work on microarchitecture security, but also provides a substantial platform to expand our research efforts.”

More than 2,100 competitors from 198 schools participated in events across the country during NCCDC regional events, with the top 10 teams advancing to the national championship.

As one of the nation’s largest collegiate competitions of its kind, this year’s NCCDC tasked competitors with the scenario of managing, operating and defending the network infrastructure of a human resource outsourcing firm while responding to business tasks, customers, and fending off a group of live Red Team hackers.

“With our successful track record in the National CCDC and other cyber competitions over the years, it’s an undeniable fact that UCF has the best cyber program, best students, and best coaches in the nation,” said Professor Tom Nedorost, head coach of the team.

The competition’s unique focus on operational aspects of managing and protecting a network infrastructure is designed to assess each student’s depth of understanding and operational competency. The NCCDC is more than just a competitive environment though, as hundreds of volunteers work closely with participating competitors throughout the year to help develop their professional networks and provide mentorship.

Through these competitions, students gain skills and real-world experiences that make them highly attractive to potential employers.

It was this specific competition that led Harrison Keating to UCF. As a high school student in St. Augustine, Florida, he enjoyed building websites and began looking at the competitions held at the college level. When he realized that UCF had a track record of winning them, he made sure that his campus visit to UCF included a stop at the Hack@UCF cybersecurity club. He enrolled, and landed a spot as an alternate on the team that he now leads as captain.

“The NCCDC is a two-day event,” Keating said. “At the beginning of day two, we were in third in one category and didn’t place in the other three. At that point, victory didn’t seem to be a possibility, Morale was low, but the team did an amazing job to find the silver lining, persevere and figuring out a way to improve in day two. Going from that position to national champions in a day was an incredible testament to the team’s determination.”

Keating and several of the team members will graduate this week in commencement ceremonies at UCF.

“The scenario we developed for this elite group of students is very realistic,” said Dwayne Williams, Director of the NCCDC and associate director at the CIAS. “The primary challenge this year is securing large amounts of personally identifiable information across different industries and states, but also dealing with a company acquisition while being targeted by bad actors. These unique challenges and hands-on experiences help each of these teams prepare for the real-world scenarios they will face after graduation.”

“I looked over all the big-name universities and saw that they didn’t have a good cybersecurity offering or any clubs for their undergraduates,” says Magill, now a 20-year-old honors information technology student and Burnett Honors Scholar. “Then I reached out to UCF and learned about one of the biggest and best cybersecurity clubs and collegiate teams in all the United States. That was the selling point for me.”

Thanks to Magill and 406 of his classmates who are current members, the Collegiate Cyber Defense Club at UCF has been sending teams of students around the world to cash in on tournaments at the expense of some of the leading universities in the United States. The latest list of first-place honors for Hack@UCF — as it is more informally known — includes the 2024 National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, 2024 Information Security Talent Search (ISTS) competition hosted by Rochester Institute of Technology; the National Centers for Academic Excellence (NCAE) Cyber Games Southeast Regional, in Tampa; the CAE Virtual Internship and Varied Innovative Demonstrations (VIVID) competition qualifier; and the Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (SECCDC).

In all, UCF cybersecurity teams have earned 87 first place awards — including five NCCDC titles — 29 second-place and 25 third-place awards. The competitions, which allow UCF students to sharpen and display their skills before cybersecurity professionals, are hosted by companies from private industry, such as Cyberbit, Google, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Raymond James, and Raytheon and federal agencies, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Energy, National Security Agency and Air Force.

Although each competition is different, student teams are typically asked to solve real-world cybersecurity challenges, such as networking, system administration, reverse engineering, cryptography, hacking, programming and forensics, in real-time.

“These companies or government agencies are banking on the fact that schools send their best teams of students to these competitions,” says Thomas Nedorost, an associate instructor in the College of Engineering and Computer Science and the club’s faculty advisor since 2013 when it was formed by one student who wanted a chance to compete. “It is a recruiting event for them. They get to see the best students from each of the schools that are invited to participate.”

Expectations Exceeded

In 2013, Jonathan Singer ’13 was a UCF senior information technology student who was intent on making a name for himself when he approached Nedorost about obtaining grant funding. When the conversation quickly turned from trying to earn money to having some fun, the idea to start a cybersecurity club and team at UCF was born. The first club meeting exceeded expectations, attracting 86 students who had a strong interest in cybersecurity.

“Some of the most talented UCF students started to come out of the woodwork,” says

Singer, a cybersecurity consultant for Virginia-based GuidePoint Security. “I thought I was cool because I already had some industry experience, but the students that came to our first meetings were some of the most incredible and brilliant people I’ve ever met in my life.”

From those early meetings, word spread. Students from all disciplines began to take an interest in the club. Competitions expanded the club’s presence internationally. Today, Hack@UCF is a juggernaut, featuring four students who have been drafted to the prestigious U.S. Cyber Team.

Recruiting Vehicle

Not only does Hack@UCF participate in competitions worldwide — exposing members to internships, job opportunities, the chance to travel and scholarship money — it invites experts from major companies to campus to discuss the latest trends in offensive and defensive cybersecurity strategies. The workshops the club conducts on campus, in the community and at high schools are a huge recruiting vehicle to attract top students with strong aptitudes and an interest in cybersecurity to UCF.

“I’ve really enjoyed being with the club — it’s my favorite thing to do at UCF,” says senior Harrison Keating, the team’s captain who first learned of UCF due to the club’s participation in a collegiate cybersecurity competition. “Before I decided on UCF, I got a chance to attend a few club meetings and I was pretty much hooked from there.”

Keating says to sustain a top-rated cyber team requires as much as 20 hours of practice a week, which, for many club members, is compounded by classwork, internships, part-time employment and weekend competitions. It also demands financial support to cover competition registration fees, travel expenses, training materials, uniforms and out-of-state tuition waivers to recruit high-potential students to the team.

Labor Shortages

Companies, including Lockheed Martin, Harris, Northrup Grumman and Raytheon, that routinely hire UCFstudents as cybersecurity engineers and analysts, penetration testers, and developers have made donations in the past to offset those costs. Given the national shortage in cybersecurity talent, it is in the best interest of others to do so as well.

Support for Hack @ UCF helps to groom tomorrow’s workforce and increase the ranks of trained cyber professionals. To get involved, please contact Thomas Bolick, 407-823-0125; Thomas.Bolick@ucf.edu.

In the United States, the cybersecurity workforce boasts more than 1,178,662 jobs — with around 572,392 of them yet to be filled, according to CyberSeek, a project supported by the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE), a program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the U.S. Department of Commerce.

“Cyberattacks can have serious consequences on just about everything — from the power grid to defense systems to our personal information,” Nedorost says. “It is imperative that organizations — industry and government — and concerned citizens continue to invest in developing new talent and cybersecurity programs at the university level to ensure tomorrow’s professionals have the essential skills to navigate these constantly evolving threats.”

UCF is No. 1 in Florida for computer and information sciences expenditures (and top 6% nationally) and No. 2 for engineering funding (top 20% nationally). The university also ranks in the top five in Florida for research backed by several national departments, including:

• No. 2 for NASA funding in Florida — and top 9% nationally
• No. 2 for Department of Defense funding in Florida — and top 15% nationally
• No. 3 for U.S. National Science Foundation funding in Florida — and top 15% nationally
• No. 3 for Department of Energy funding in Florida — and in the top 20% nationally
• No. 5 for Department of Health and Human Services funding in Florida — and top 25% nationally

UCF is also in the top 10% of expenditures in the nation for research in physics, computer and information sciences, non-science and engineering, and physical sciences. “I am very pleased at UCF’s continued growth in research expenditures, surpassing $220M for FY22,” says Winston Schoenfeld, UCF’s interim vice president for research and innovation. “This is the direct result of tireless work by our dedicated faculty, staff, and students, as well as our many partners, leading to new levels of innovation in research and discovery. Through their collective excellence, UCF continues to progress as one of the leading public research universities in the nation.”

UCF also had an impact on higher education R&D expenditures this year. At higher education institutions in both survey populations, UCF finished in the top 19%, fifth in Florida. At expenditures at public institutions, UCF finished in the top 20%, fifth in Florida. Overall research and development spending by academic institutions nationwide totaled $97.8 billion in FY 2022, an increase of $8 billion from FY 2021.

Over the year, UCF’s projects were tied to a number of agencies and scientific disciplines:

Computer and Information Sciences

UCF ranks ahead of all universities in Florida

Paul Gazzillo, an assistant professor in UCF’s Department of Computer Science, is leading research on a three-year, nearly $1 million Defense Advance Research Projects Agency Young Faculty award that will make investigations into corporate relationships easier and quicker by creating automated tools that help investigators track complex corporate relationships.

Department of Defense

UCF ranks ahead of Florida International ����ֱ�� (FIU), Florida State ����ֱ�� (FSU) and the ����ֱ�� of South Florida (USF)

UCF Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Associate Professor Kareem Ahmed, NanoScience Technology Center Assistant Professor Tania Roy, and UCF Materials Science and Engineering Professor Kevin Coffey were selected by the U.S. Department of Defense as part of the department’s Multidisciplinary ����ֱ�� Research Initiative, which supports projects that range from advancing hypersonic propulsion to improving semiconductor performance and will fund the work for the next five years.

Engineering

UCF ranks ahead of FSU, USF, FIU

Utilizing technology such as heart monitors with acoustic technology and biomechanical forces that can influence the early stages of heart disease, mechanical and aerospace engineers at UCF focus their expertise on finding creative solutions to heart disease, the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

UCF ranks ahead of FSU and USF

Planetary scientists Kerri Donaldson Hanna and Adrienne Dove will lead a $35 million NASA science mission to land a spacecraft on the moon’s Gruithuisen Domes, a previously unexplored region. The robotic mission would launch in 2026 to study the domes’ chemical composition and how dust interacts with the spacecraft and a rover.

Physics

UCF ranks No. 2 in Florida, and ahead of Florida Atlantic ����ֱ�� (FAU), ����ֱ�� of West Florida (UWF), ����ֱ�� of North Florida (UNF) nationally

Tania Roy, an assistant professor in UCF’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering and NanoScience Technology Center, and Molla Manjurul Islam ’17MS, the study’s lead author and a doctoral student in UCF’s Department of Physics, have developed a device for artificial intelligence that mimics the retina of the eye. The development could lead to advanced AI that can instantly recognize what it sees, like automatic descriptions of pictures taken by a camera or phone. The technology also has applications in self-driving vehicles and robotics.

Department of Energy

UCF ranks ahead of FIU, Florida A&M ����ֱ�� (FAMU) and USF

Denisia Popolan-Vaida, an assistant professor in UCF’s Department of Chemistry, received a five-year, $800,000 grant from the Department of Energy to investigate elusive chemical compounds that could help mitigate the impact of combustion on the environment. The compounds, known as Criegee intermediates, form by reactions of ozone and hydrocarbons, and only within the last decade have scientists been able to directly measure them because of their low concentrations and short lifetime.

U.S. National Science Foundation

UCF ranks head of USF, FIU and FAMU

Eight UCF professors who work with interdisciplinary teams to solve tech and health problems were named NSF CAREER award recipients. Some of the research includes Assistant Professor of Material Science and Engineering YeonWoong “Eric” Jung’s materials and nanotech research into pliable laptops and smartphones, as well as Assistant Professor of Material Science and Engineering and Biionix Faculty Cluster Initiative member Mehdi Razavi’s work into improving corrosion resistance to produce better magnesium-based bone implants.

Physical Sciences

UCF ranks No. 3 in Florida, and ahead of FAU, UWF and UNF

Using data collected from Arecibo’s Planetary Radar, planetary scientist Luisa Fernanda Zambrano-Marin researched the 2019 asteroid OK that was headed toward Earth. The asteroid was between .04 and .08 miles in diameter and was moving fast, rotating for 3 to 5 minutes. The asteroid was part of only 4.2% of the known fast-rotating asteroids.

Also competing in the in-person competition in St. Charles, Illinois, another team of UCF students took fourth place. Each team included six students, many of whom are studying computer science, cyber security and privacy, digital forensics and information technology.

CyberForce addresses the U.S. government’s goal to promote cybersecurity workforce development by helping to build a pipeline of cyber professional candidates to enter the operational technology cybersecurity workforce.

“CyberForce helps our students strengthen the skills and confidence they need to be thoroughly prepared for successful careers after they graduate,” says the team’s faculty advisor and head coach Tom Nedorost.

Proof that the UCF students are prepared to become key players in the industry of cybersecurity, this year’s competitors have interned with such firms as Amazon, IBM, KPMG, Palo Alto Networks, Planate and Texas Instruments, and many are on pace to continue working for them after graduation.

UCF is a powerhouse for cyber defense programs and is designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education and a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Research. In 2021, the U.S. National Science Foundation awarded a $2.9 million grant to provide cybersecurity scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students. UCF also houses a Cyber Security and Privacy Research Faculty Cluster Initiative, which examines a breadth of interdisciplinary areas.

The CyberForce Competition is sponsored by the DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) and managed by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). It started in 2016 to provide students with hands-on cybersecurity experience through interactive, energy cyber-focused scenarios.

In an increasingly digitized world, a skilled cybersecurity workforce becomes even more valuable to industry and the U.S. energy sector.

The Collegiate Cyber Defense Club at UCF, known as Hack@UCF, boasts 312 members.

The annual CyberForce Competition uses a hands-on security approach to engage students in emergency scenarios, and challenges students to safeguard the nation’s critical energy sector. This year, the scenario involved students working for a distributed energy resource (DER) management company.

This year’s winning teams consisted of the following students:

Team A  (first place)
Jeffrey DiVincent ’23 (team captain)
Zachary Groome
Matthew McKeever
Caitlin Whitehead
Cameron Whitehead
Caleb Wisley

Team B  (fourth place)
Harrison Keating (team captain)
Milo Gilad
Colton Knight
Noah Magill
Caleb Sjostedt
Andrew Terry

“It’s like basketball and volleyball teams hanging championship banners in the same gym,” says Glenn Martin ’92 ’95MS ’12PhD, who competed on UCF’s computer programming team as a student before joining the coaching staff in 1994. “We want the cybersecurity team to do well because it elevates all of UCF, and I assume they feel the same way about us.”

The founder of UCF’s C3 team, Associate Instructor of Computer Science Tom Nedorost, credits the computer programming team for the setting a winning tone 40 years ago.

“The success of both teams is the best indication of the quality of our undergraduate computer science and information technology programs. Their team set the precedent,” Nederost says. Then he adds a neighborly jab. “But I hung the first banners. They copied us.”

Both teams continued their long streaks of success in 2022. Earlier in the year, two computer programming teams took first and second places among 70 teams at the Southeast Regionals (this marks the 40^th straight year that at least one UCF team has finished third or higher at regionals). In November, UCF placed third in the nation and 26^th in the world among 137 teams at the International Collegiate Programming Competition (ICPC) in Bangladesh.

While the computer programming team competed overseas at ICPC, two of UCF’s cybersecurity teams were taking the top spots at the Department of Energy’s CyberForce Competition in Illinois. Three days earlier, they’d secured first and third places at the Aviation ISAC Student Cyber Challenge. A week later they won another competition in Idaho. The wins are hard to keep track.

“Schools from around the country know when our team walks into a building,” says Nedorost, before adding a note that applies to the C3 and computer programming teams. “We’ve been so successful for so long that people locally tend to become numb to it. They don’t realize the work that goes into continuing this level of success.”

Computer programming stalwart Seba Villalobos finishes a five-hour practice with the satisfied exhaustion of someone who just finished training for a triathlon.

 “We want to win so we can hang another banner. That’s why we push each other.” — Seba Villalobos, UCF Computer Programming Team member

For starters, they put in five hours every Saturday, all year long — with one exception.

“We took Thanksgiving weekend off,” says Martin, a research associate professor at the UCF-based .

Each practice simulates a national or world competition, where teams of three students solve as many real-life problems as they can within the time allotted. They route fire trucks through city streets confused with closed intersections, arrange gate arrivals at a backed-up airport, determine the shortest distances for a series of shipments from various distribution centers.

“The practices prepare them for the mental drain of competition,” Martin says. “They enjoy it enough to put in extra work. If you come to the labs late at night during the week, you’ll find people practicing.”

Everyone from the six-person coaching staff and 27-member team talks about “culture” as the biggest difference-maker. Villalobos is a National Hispanic Scholar who didn’t even like coding until coming to UCF. An Introduction to Computer Programming class sparked a bit of intrigue. Then, while working on an electric longboard in a lab, someone convinced Villalobos to try out for the computer programming team.

“I didn’t quite make the team,” Villalobos says of the tryouts that thinned 100-plus students down to 18 varsity and nine junior varsity competitors. “It drove me to train harder.”

For the next few months, Villalobos practiced more than 40 hours a week. The work paid off when Villalobos was invited to join the JV team before eventually being promoted to varsity.

“I had no idea how talented the other teams were until my first competition,” Villalobos says. “You see these students from MIT, Stanford, Russia and China. It’s a reminder that we can’t slack off. For every moment we aren’t training, other teams are getting better. There’s a saying we use: ‘Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.’ ”

“[The Cybersecurity Team’s] success adds fuel for us to do even better.” — Seba Villalobos, UCF Computer Programming Team member

To be sure, UCF’s computer programming team has both: a deep pool of talented students who have to work to earn spots on a team that’s won bronze at worlds (in 2018) while traveling to Moscow, Portugal and Beijing. The most important props, though, come from their fellow Knights. During halftime of a football game last fall, UCF President Alexander N. Cartwright introduced the team to the home crowd.

“That was super cool,” Villalobos says, before adding, “but that same week the cybersecurity team got a big congratulations on a road sign for finishing first at a national competition. Their success adds fuel for us to do even better.”

Cybersecurity mastermind Cameron Whitehead first became aware of UCF’s national prestige when he saw a picture of the C3 team on a marquee in Times Square. He was 14 at the time. A year earlier he’d developed his own online video game. By the time he came to UCF at the age of 19, he already had a bachelor’s and two master’s degrees. He’s about to complete a third, in digital forensics. His reasons for coming to UCF had to do with those banners in L3Harris and some problems he encountered with his video game.

“I discovered vulnerabilities in my game that fit with the research I’m doing on securing power grids,” he says.

To dive even deeper into the tactical minds of bad guys, Whitehead and his sister, Caitlin, joined the Collegiate Cyber Defense Club (commonly known as Hack@UCF). Their skills stood out enough for Nedorost to pull them onto the national championship C3 team. Since March 2021, they’ve stood on more than 12 podiums around the country.

“They develop the programming, and we find flaws in it. We both make the world better.” — Cameron Whitehead, UCF Cybersecurity Team member

“Wherever UCF goes to compete, it seems like we’re the defending champions,” Cameron says.

On Nov. 2, the Whiteheads and Jeffrey DiVincent won the Aviation ISAC Student Challenge in Orlando. The next morning, they drove to Orlando International Airport for an early morning flight to Illinois, where they’d compete in CyberForce.

“When we went through security, I prayed no one would see my search history from the day before when the competition required us to understand and test airport security systems,” Cameron says.

At the event he didn’t want the competitors from 108 schools to witness anything other than another win for UCF.

“We’ve set a high standard, and we use it get better every year,” he says.

When he’s asked about the computer programming team, he says, “They represent UCF, so I’m proud when they do well. They develop the programming, and we find flaws in it. We both make the world better.”