Four Texas A&M University undergraduate students were part of a team that placed third at the 2020 Cybersecurity Challenge organized by the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SPHE). The competition, which took place during the SPHE National Convention and included 18 teams with 64 total competitors, was a capture-the-flag exercise sponsored by the National Security Administration. SHPE’s Cybersecurity Challenge is focused on empowering the next generation of cyber operators throughout the country to “Build Our Tomorrow Together.”
The third place team consisted of Texas A&M students Jonathan Gaytan (Computer Science ’22), Abraham Sanchez (Computer Science ’22), Alexander Gomez (Aerospace Engineering ’22), and Jonathan Saenz (Computer Engineering ’21), along with Francisco Rangel, who is a student at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (Computer Engineering ’22). The third place ranking earned the team a $750 prize.
According to team member Jonathan Saenz, “Our team was really young compared to the first and second place teams. They had graduate students on their teams.” He is also very optimistic about the future of this team. He said, “Overall it was a great competition, and next year we will be better. We learned a lot.”