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 ’02�ѳ�, 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 ’02�ѳ�, 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.”

“I researched the past winners and saw UCF’s history of dominance. I knew I wanted to go here and work with the best.” — Harrison Keating ’24, student

Harrison Keating ’24, who earned his bachelor’s in computer science in May, and is now enrolled as a master’s student in cyber security and privacy, won dozens of competitions for UCF. At the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NCCDC) in April, he served as team captain of a UCF team, which recently defeated nine other regional champions in the largest collegiate competition of its kind in the nation. The team won UCF’s record sixth national championship in San Antonio and the Alamo Cup trophy in April this year.

“I had been interested in cybersecurity competitions for a long time,” says Harrison, who is from St. Augustine, Florida. “When I learned about the NCCDC — the most prestigious cyber defense competition in the U.S. — I researched the past winners and saw UCF’s history of dominance. I knew I wanted to go here and work with the best. Being geographically close to home helped too, but after visiting as a high schooler and attending several Hack@UCF club meetings, I was hooked. That active, passionate student community around cybersecurity is really what drew me in.”

A Dynasty of Champions

UCF’s cybersecurity program is not just about classroom learning — it’s about real-world success and a dominant force in collegiate cyber sports.

The most recent victory, winning the NCCDC, often dubbed the “Super Bowl” of cybersecurity competitions, a record six times, further cemented UCF’s status as a dynasty in the world of competitive cyber competitions.

Overall, UCF’s Collegiate Cybersecurity Competition Team is the nation’s best collegiate cybersecurity competition team, winning a total of 12 national championships since 2014.

The UCF Collegiate Cybersecurity Competition Team members are all members of larger Collegiate Cyber Defense Club (also known as Hack@UCF), which has grown exponentially as a club in the past few years. Club membership has nearly doubled over the past four years from 210 active student members in 2020 to a record 406 active members by the end of the 2023-24 school year. The 2024-2025 school year is off to a great start with over 350 students joining the club within the first month of the school year.

“With our successful track record in the [NCCDC] 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,” says Professor of Computer Science Tom Nedorost ’02�ѳ�, who is head coach of the team.

“With our successful track record in the [NCCDC] 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.” — Tom Nedorost ’02�ѳ�, professor and Hack@UCF coach

The team’s success is no accident. UCF’s competitive edge stems from a comprehensive and hands-on approach to cybersecurity education. Students engage in complex scenarios that mimic real-life cyber threats, requiring them to protect networks and systems from simulated attacks. This immersive learning model sharpens their skills, prepares them for high-stakes situations and gives them a significant advantage when entering the workforce.

“Unfortunately, cybercrime is profitable,” Keating says. “There’s a growing industry of ransomware attacks that hold entire companies and their customers’ data hostage. We know that 60% of small to medium businesses have experienced at least one cyber attack. It’s everybody’s problem at this point … in world of social media, online banking and cloud storage, everyone is connected to the Internet in some way. It can all be hacked; it’s inescapable now.”

According to Cyberseek.org, there are nearly 470,000 open cybersecurity positions available today in the United States including 23,424 open positions within Florida. The national number of individuals employed in cyber careers has increased by 55% since 2010 while the number of cyber job openings has increased by 69%.  In Florida alone, the number of individuals employed in cyber careers has increased by 67% since 2010 while the number of cyber job openings has increased by 80%.  Within Florida, the highest concentrations of cyber opportunities are in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater; Orlando-Kissimmee; West Palm Beach-Ft. Lauderdale-Miami; and Jacksonville.

Harrison has a drive that fits the ever-evolving landscape of his field of study. He has completed internships as a security engineer with Core & Main, and as a network engineer with IBM Research. In addition to his master’s coursework and preparing for upcoming competitions, Harrison is employed full-time as a Cybersecurity Engineer at Abbott Laboratories, on a team comprised mostly of UCF and C3 alumni. He also found ways to pursue his interest in the business side of cybersecurity, including a first place finish in UCF’s Joust New Venture Competition last spring.

Collaboration and Competition

Last fall, Harrison founded and served as the competition director for the inaugural Horse Plinko Cyber Challenge, a fun and educational cyber contest designed for beginning cybersecurity students. The competition is returning this fall Oct. 5-6 — this time with over 200 registered participants. This event is 100% student-run and provides students with an entry point into the competitive and valuable experiences they need to compete on teams like his and ultimately pursue careers in cybersecurity — which is sorely needed, as cybercriminals extorted a record $1.1 billion last year.

“Competing on UCF’s cybersecurity team was probably the best decision I’ve made since joining UCF,” says Matthew McKeever ’24, who earned his bachelors in computer science and has also returned for a master’s degree in cyber security and privacy, after interning at Microsoft security group, where a job offer has been extended for him to join.

“Competing on UCF’s cybersecurity team was probably the best decision I’ve made since joining UCF.” — Matthew McKeever ’24, student

“Competing has taught me topics and concepts you learn in class but … I would say that competitions are more valuable than the classes you take. Companies sometimes view competition experience as working experience,” McKeever says.

After winning the NCCDC, the UCF Collegiate Cybersecurity Competition Team was invited by Nightwing, an intelligence services company and sponsor of the largest collegiate-level cyber competition, to meet cyber professionals in the public sector who are charged with securing the nation against cyber adversaries. The UCF team and their coach, Nedorost, visited the Pentagon, Central Intelligence Agency, U.S. Secret Service, Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Homeland Security Investigations Cyber Crimes Center, the Library of Congress and the U.S. Capitol.

Meeting the group at the Pentagon was Mieke Eoyang, deputy assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy. She welcomed the students and informed them of the types of career opportunities available for cybersecurity professionals at the U.S. Department of Defense.

At the CIA, the students toured the Cyber Operations Center and spoke with recently hired CIA cyber professionals about their career experience. Visiting the U.S. Secret Service, students learned that the original purpose of the agency was to investigate counterfeit currency. While that purpose is still part of the mission, the agency is involved in all types of counterfeit activities, including falsified documents and signatures, as well as providing protective services for U.S. political figures, their families and visiting heads of state or government.

Securing a Future in the Digital Age

For students passionate about cybersecurity, UCF offers more than just an education — it provides a pathway to a successful and impactful career. Whether aiming to defend networks, protect critical infrastructure, or contribute to the global fight against cybercrime, UCF is the place to sharpen skills, compete with the best and launch a thriving career.

With a winning tradition, cutting-edge curriculum and real-world training that industry recruiters notice, UCF stands out as the leader in cybersecurity education.

The team won the southeast regional title last weekend at Kennedy Space Center to advance to the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, the “Super Bowl of cyber competitions,” April 25-27 in San Antonio.

“We send the best of our best to this competition,” says UCF Computer Science Professor Tom Nedorost, who coaches the team. “Many companies sign up to host these competitions so that they can pick top talent.”

UCF’s Cybersecurity Team is one of many causes available for donors to support during annual UCF’s celebration on April 11. Contributions help to cover the team’s competition and travel expenses.

The competition features student teams running a fictional company and defending it against a variety of cyber attacks similar to what a real-world company would face — all in a manner similar to the types of simulations corporations run to try to prevent attacks against their systems. Attacks during the competition come from industry professionals who seek out weaknesses and aim to extract personally identifiable information from the student teams’ companies.

The team’s captain, Harrison Keating, a computer science major, enrolled at UCF in order to participate in this competition.

“You have to defend against real attackers in real time to keep the business operational,” Keating says.

UCF students who compete are typically hired directly into mid-level positions as cyber analysts, consultants, penetration testers or vulnerability researchers with base salaries above $115,000 and generous signing/relocation bonuses, Nedorost says. Within two to three years, they move into advanced level positions and earn annual salaries exceeding $200,000.

With its unrivaled record nationally, UCF has won five national championships, most recently in 2021 and 2022, and finished runner-up three times.

In addition to winning first place at the regionals weekend, the UCF team was also recognized for three specialty awards: Best in Business, Best in Service and Best in Defense. The Best in Business award is given to the team that successfully completes the most business injects, or tasks, during the competition. The Best in Service award recognizes the team that finished the competition with the highest percentage of operational time for their network services. And the Best in Defense award is bestowed on the team that experiences the fewest disruptions to their network operations due to the cyberattacks.

According to Cyberseek.org, there are currently 572,392 unfilled cyber jobs in the United States. There are only enough cybersecurity professionals in the United States to fill 72% of the current need. Florida only has enough cybersecurity professionals to fill 74% of the current need.

The Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition series is the largest and longest-running collegiate-level cyber competition in the U.S. A record number of 38 teams competed in the southeast region this year.

The inaugural NSA cybersecurity exercise for institutions designated as NSA Centers of Academic Excellence (NCAE-C) in Cybersecurity — held virtually April 11-13 — tested students’ skills and knowledge in five different areas of cybersecurity expertise.

The contest, called the 2022 CAE-NCX, is an advanced-level competition. As a NCAE-C institution, UCF was one of 375 designated institutions eligible to compete in the three-day event.

Ten UCF students, many of whom are members of UCF’s highly-decorated Cybersecurity Competition Team, competed in five modules — Cryptography, Malware Analysis, Policy, Secure Software Development, and Cyber Combat Exercise — winning the Cryptography, Policy and the Cyber Combat Exercise modules. The Cyber Combat Exercise was an eight-hour competition that counted for 40% of UCF’s overall score.

Team Coach Tom Nedorost, a faculty member of the UCF College of Engineering and Computer Science, strategically assembled each module’s four-member team based on students’ individual strengths and skills, with some students competing in multiple modules.

2022 CAE-NCX modules and UCF student competitors were:

• Module 1: Cryptography (UCF First Place) 
  Cameron Whitehead (captain), digital forensics master’s student; Caitlin Whitehead, digital forensics master’s student; James Geist ’87, doctoral computer science student; Matthew McKeever, senior computer science student

• Module 2:  Malware Analysis
  Geist (captain); Cameron Whitehead; Caitlin Whitehead; Christopher Fischer, senior computer science student

• Module 3:  Policy (UCF First Place)
  Caitlin Whitehead (captain); Cameron Whitehead; Daniella Bader, senior international and global studies student; Paul “PJ” Tice, senior political science and psychology student

• Module 4:  Secure Software Development 
  Jeffrey DiVincent (captain), junior computer science student; Jacob Franz, junior computer science student; Tyler Hostler-Mathis, junior computer science student; Geist
• Module 5:  Cyber Combat Exercise (UCF First Place) 
  Fischer (captain); DiVincent; Cameron Whitehead; McKeever

“I knew UCF’s team had all the technical skills necessary to success in the CAE-NCX,” Nedorost says. “I was most concerned about the Policy module, which required extensive knowledge of public policy, law and government bureaucracy, along with professional writing and the presentation skills expected of television news anchor. In collaboration with UCF’s Intelligence and National Security Center of Academic Excellence at UCF, we assembled an interdisciplinary team for the Policy module which resulted in a win.”

Nedorost credits Bruce Caulkins ’86 ’95MS ’05PhD, director, UCF’s Modeling and Simulation of Behavioral Cybersecurity program, for mentoring the Policy module team.

Cameron Whitehead, who competed in four of the five modules, attributed UCF’s module victories to how well his teammates quickly adapted to different challenges and communicated strategies effectively.

“One personal highlight was in the Cyber Combat module,” Whitehead says. “It required us to attack more than 100 different computers that were being defended by other university teams as well as to defend our own machines from all the other teams. This required us to pivot from focusing on small targeted attacks to finding techniques to quickly attack dozens of computers at once. By the end of the module, UCF had hacked a majority of the machines being defended by others, and in many cases, had entirely taken control of those machines from their original owners.”

Competitions like these give students real-world training in safeguarding the nation’s critical infrastructure from cyberattacks that are growing more frequent, damaging and costly. To help meet the demand for cybersecurity professionals now and in the future, UCF launched a new master’s degree in cyber security and privacy last year.

Since 2013, UCF Collegiate Cybersecurity Competition Team has consistently won or placed in the top-three in national cyber competitions that include the Department of Energy’s CyberForce Competition (UCF won in 2021 and 2018), and Raytheon’s National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (UCF won in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2021).

UCF students from any major can learn more about the multi-faceted field of cybersecurity through , a robust student organization at UCF with 200+ members who meet regularly to explore cybersecurity and defense topics and prepare for competitions.

UCF will defend its national title in the 2022 National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition in San Antonio April 21-23.

Whitehead, who is studying for his master’s degree in digital forensics, recently placed second out of 688 competitors in the , the first qualifying step to join the team. The top 60 finishers will square off next in the upcoming virtual U.S. Cyber Combine Invitational, which will determine the national team to advance to the international event.

“The process is very similar to selecting a dream team to compete in the Olympics,” says Tom Nedorost ’02�ѳ�, faculty advisor for the student cybersecurity club, .

“I’ve been interested in programming and computers since I first got access to them as a kid,” says Whitehead of Lake Mary, Florida. “This eventually led me into cyber security specifically, which to me was far more exciting than programming. It is a fascinating field that brings together concepts as different as abstract algebra, which is vital in modern cryptography, and management processes that ensure that programmers write secure code.”

The International Cyber Security Challenge will be hosted by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity.

The International Cyber Security Challenge will be hosted by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity as a part of a promotion to raise awareness about cybersecurity. The U.S. team selection is being overseen by the company Katzcy and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a branch of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

In this first virtual round from his home, Whitehead says he had to solve a variety of problems, such as finding and exploiting vulnerabilities in websites, breaking encryption systems to read hidden messages, reverse engineering software, and analyzing a forensic copy of a mobile phone. “The big challenge was completing these challenges as fast as possible, since it was a race to see who would complete them all first and lock in the top places,” he says.

In the next round of tests, Nedorost says the U.S. Cyber Games head coach will put the competitors through a series of challenges to further assess their knowledge and skills before selecting 20 for the first U.S. Cyber Team.

Whitehead’s sister, Caitlin, also studying for her master’s in digital forensics, finished in the top 20 of the recent competition. Nedorost says she likely would be invited to compete in the next round, too.

Whitehead says much of his competition success is because of the mentoring and assistance of many of the students and alumni at the Hack@UCF club on campus. He encourages anyone interested in competing or learning more about cyber security to join the club.

Nedorost says that since the U.S. Cyber Games is a new competition this year, he had very little information to share with students about how to prepare.

“I simply forwarded an email advertisement promoting the U.S. Cyber Games to Hack@UCF club members and encouraged students to register if they wanted to compete,” he says.

Whitehead says “to do well in competitions, you have to compete in competitions, and that often includes losing. While I don’t always do well, I always learn something new that I can take into the next competition.”

After graduation planned for 2024, Whitehead says he’d like to start his own cyber security firm, perhaps with a focus on digital forensics incident response.

The team hopes to regain the national title after having won the championship three consecutive years (2014, 2015, 2016) and finishing as runner-up the past three years (2018, 2019, 2020).

In a tune-up competition two weeks ago, UCF finished second at the Maryland Cyber Challenge hosted by the ����ֱ�� of Maryland Global Campus.

The April 23-25 national competition, which is the highest visibility competition for the team each year, had been scheduled to be held in San Antonio, Texas, but the pandemic forced the event to go virtual.

“The pandemic has severely impacted cyber competitions this academic year,” says Tom Nedorost ’02�ѳ�, the team’s coach and faculty advisor for the student cybersecurity club, Hack@UCF. “Going into this academic year, I knew six of my eight returning team members would graduate this year. Recruiting talented new students last August was a tremendous challenge considering our campus was locked down.”

Training has been difficult this year since most of it has been conducted remotely.

Training has also been difficult this year since most of it has been conducted remotely, he says. Teams typically compete from one location, but this year in the virtual competitions, team members had to learn to communicate effectively with each other while competing from home and simultaneously working on multiple tasks to detect and defend computer networks from outside threats.

“This led to rule changes which made this year’s competition even more challenging,” Nedorost says.

The eight team members headed to the national competition are: Michael Roberts ’19, a graduate student and team captain from Winter Springs, Florida, who has been on the team five years; twin brother Martin Roberts ’20, a graduate student from Winter Springs; Alexander Cote, co-captain from Monroe, Michigan; Michael Troisi from St. Cloud, Florida; Nelson Torres from Orlando; Kai Garcia from Winter Springs; Aiden Durand from Charleston, South Carolina; and Christopher Fischer from Orlando.

“The team members and I are anxiously looking forward to the time where we’ll be able to compete on location with other schools,” Nedorost says. “I expect UCF will continue to have a highly competitive cyber team well into the future.”

“Each individual competitor needed to possess the knowledge and skills and perform all the work typically spread among a six-member team.”
— Tom Nedorost

Due to the pandemic, this year’s CyberForce competition shifted from an in-person test designed for teams to a virtual challenge designed for individual competitors. More than 450 college students from across the nation were selected to participate in the sixth annual competition, but only 201 students from 36 states earned points in the cybersecurity exercise intended to mimic the energy sector.

This year’s scenario required competitors to secure and report on a fictitious wind energy company in charge of more than 20,000 megawatts of electricity generation that had been experiencing abnormal network activity.

“Each individual competitor needed to possess the knowledge and skills and perform all the work typically spread among a six-member team,” says Associate Lecturer of Computer Science Tom Nedorost, faculty advisor for known as Hack@UCF. “Michael demonstrated both exceptional breadth and depth of skills and knowledge required to configure, secure and defend multiple Linux and Windows servers, networks, firewalls and [industrial control systems] operating turbines of commercial windmills.”

A digital forensics graduate student, Roberts earned a bachelor’s in information technology from UCF in 2019 and is a member of the Hack@UCF team that placed second at last year’s CyberForce competition and first in the 2018 competition. He has also been captain of the teams that placed second in 2018, 2019 and 2020 at the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition as well as the teams that placed first at the Panoply National Competition in 2017 and 2018 and the Leidos Cyber Challenge in 2017.

“I’m just excited to see my hard work pay off and to be recognized by the Department of Energy for getting second place,” says Roberts. “I am glad that there are competitions like this that improve the visibility of the work we do. These competitions are training undergraduate students, so they gain new skills, as well as people like me who are already in the industry, so we can gain additional skills that can be applied on the job.”

In addition to having an active role in Hack@UCF, Roberts has completed internships at Northrop Grumman, IBM and Chick-fil-A, and currently works as an information security engineer at Abbott Laboratories in Orlando.

“I am glad that there are competitions like this that improve the visibility of the work we do.”
— Michael Roberts ’19

“Cybersecurity really has two sides,” Roberts says. “There’s the offensive side where you’re trying to break into a company to test whether they’re secure or not, and then you let them know how they can be improved; and then there’s the defensive side where you secure the company from attacks. I interned at different places to get a variety of experience and to discover what I liked best. For the past year or so, I’ve been working in the healthcare field, and it feels nice to be making some very important healthcare products more secure, especially given this pandemic.”

According to the Center for Cyber Safety and Education, unfilled cybersecurity careers are expected to reach more than 1.8 million by 2022 — a 20% increase in demand since 2015.

The DOE established the CyberForce competition to address this growing need, by raising awareness of energy sector cybersecurity as a career path among budding professionals.

“The American cybersecurity workforce is facing a gap in talent, and this competition is an exciting, engaging part of helping to fill that gap,” says Nick Andersen, principal deputy assistant secretary of the DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response. “Every year, we see incredibly promising students competing in the CyberForce Competition, and this year was no exception.”

The student Collegiate Cyber Defense Club @ UCF locked up an unprecedented three-peat victory on Sunday at the 2016 National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition in San Antonio.

“It was surprising and fantastic,” team captain Jonathan Lundstrom said of the moment the students learned  they won. “One of the members checked his pulse and it was over 100. The anticipation was extreme.”

The competition victory comes on the heels of UCF being named a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education just last week by the National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security. It’s an honor that recognizes the strength of the university’s cyberdefense programs, curriculum, faculty and students.

More than 180 college and university teams vied for the cyberdefense championship. The UCF club’s competition team already had won the Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, its fourth straight win of that regional competition, to earn a spot in the national contest.

At the three-day national competition, the UCF team beat nine other teams – each of them the best from their region of the country – to earn the victory. UCF has dominated the field for the past three years. The team brings home the competition’s Alamo Cup.

At the national competition, teams operated and managed the network of a fictitious aerospace defense contractor. They use cutting-edge cybersecurity tools and their own finely honed cyberskills to monitor network activity and fend off attacks from hackers trying to gain access to blueprints and other information stored on company servers.

The competition, sponsored by Raytheon, the Department of Homeland Security, Accenture, Walmart and other major companies and government agencies, is modeled after real-world scenarios. Its goal is to prepare students to strengthen the nation’s network infrastructure in a time of relentless attacks by hackers.

“Everyone recognizes we need to find and train more cyberprofessionals. Competitions absolutely help to meet that need,” competition director Dwayne Williams said.  “Across the nation, the competition gets harder and teams get better each year.”

UCF’s team is made up of Lundstrom, Carolyn Chenicek, Kevin Colley, Alexander Davis, Matthew DeGraffenreid, Jonathan Haas, Heather Lawrence, David Maria, Edward Mojica, Michael Rossi, Matthew St. Hubin and Neil Stagner.

Hack@UCF, whose faculty advisor is Thomas Nedorost, has more than 200 members, most of whom are majoring in computer science or computer engineering in the College of Engineering & Computer Science. The dozen on the competition team are required to maintain full-time student status. In addition to school and work – they all have jobs – they train together two to three times a week. Including time they put in at home, it amounts to about 20 hours a week of practice.

“It definitely requires a lot of dedication,” Lundstrom said.

Brigham Young ����ֱ�� placed second, and DePaul ����ֱ�� placed third.

The win comes with more than just bragging rights. There are typically internships and job offers from competition partner Raytheon. The company also will host the winning team in Washington, D.C., over the summer for tours of top research and cybersecurity sites. The past two years, team members also had private tours of the White House.

Team members from the Collegiate Cyber Defense Club @ UCF took first place in the Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition held this week at Kennesaw State ����ֱ�� in Georgia. It’s the third consecutive year that UCF’s team has come out on top in the Southeast region.

The team will now travel to San Antonio on April 24-26 to compete in the Raytheon National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition against nine other regional winners.

Other teams will likely be gunning for the ����ֱ�� in San Antonio, because UCF’s team is the defending national champion. That victory in 2014 earned team members a trip to the White House to meet Vice President Joe Biden.

It’s a busy month for UCF’s cyber-warriors. On Friday, they head to Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Wash., to participate in the computer and software giant’s “Build the Shield” competition for the first time.

At the Southeast competition on Tuesday and Wednesday, UCF also won two specialty awards: “Best in Business” for accurately completing the largest number of business injects of any team, and “Best in Service” for maintaining the highest overall system up-time of 92 percent. This year’s up-time score breaks the previous up-time record for the Southeast region, which was also set by UCF in 2013.

In winning the Southeast contest, the UCF team bested teams from the ����ֱ�� of South Florida, ����ֱ�� of North Carolina-Charlotte, ����ֱ�� of North Carolina-Wilmington, College of Charleston, Georgia Regents ����ֱ��, Montreat College and Tennessee Technical ����ֱ��.

Members of this year’s team include: Carlos Beltran, Jason Cooper, Austin Brogle, Conner Brooks, Kevin Colley, Alex Davis, Nathaniel Dennis, Tyler Dever, Kevin DiClemente, Andres Giron, Jonathan Lundstrom and Shane Welch.

The students from the Collegiate Cyber Defense Club @ UCF will participate in “Build the Shield,” a national-level competition organized and hosted by Microsoft on its campus in Redmond, Wash.

Microsoft is paying the travel expenses for the UCF teams, flying all 16 students to Washington on Friday. The event is Saturday, and they’ll fly back to Orlando on Sunday.

Microsoft selected 50 teams of competitors for “Build-the-Shield” by putting applicants through a qualifying round. The ����ֱ�� fared so well in the qualifier that all four UCF teams, each with four students, were tapped for the competition.

“There are only 50 teams that will be competing nationwide, so to have four is a pretty big achievement,” said Thomas Nedorost, the club’s faculty advisor.

Since the club was formed in 2012, it has shot to the forefront of cyber-defense competitions. Last year, the club’s eight-member team won the Raytheon National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, earning a trip to the White House to meet Vice President Joe Biden.

And on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, the UCF students were competing against teams from seven other universities in the Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, one of 10 regional showdowns that leads to the national competition.

Nedorost said the group competed in 21 events during the 2014 fall and spring semesters, and is on track to participate in as many as 25 this year.

The students competing Saturday are: Carlos Beltran, Austin Brogle, Conner Brooks, Kevin DiClemente, Mark Ignacio, Alexander Lynch, Cody McMahon, Ditmar Wendt, Kevin Colley, Alexander Davis, Kirk Elifson, Charly Collin, Cory Kinberger, Gabriela Llave, Maxwell Miller and Beckylin Orooji.

Most competitions require competitors to secure and defend a lackluster network from attacks by professional hackers. But “Build the Shield” is different; teams must secure and defend their own network while also attacking those of their competitors.

Microsoft is using the competition to ensure the security of its networks and products. With recent major data breaches at corporate giants including Sony, Target, Home Depot and Anthem, cyber-defense is something more companies are paying attention to.

“The skills they’re using here are skills most corporations would need for their own security departments,” Nedorost said. “Companies are hiring people to make sure their networks are secure so hackers can’t get into them.”

Winners of the Microsoft competition win laptops, Xbox One bundles and tablets – plus a chance to interview with Microsoft for future job opportunities.