After hours of cool-headed puzzling and problem-solving, Hunter Wittenborn, a student from the University of Alabama at Huntsville, emerged as champion of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) 2024 CyberForce® Conquer the Hill® — Reign Edition Competition. Hosted by DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) and Argonne National Laboratory, Wittenborn competed with some of the brightest young minds studying cybersecurity to tackle a series of challenges in a video game style escape room.
The Reign Edition competition is part of DOE’s CyberForce® Program, which aims to develop the next generation of cyber defenders for the energy sector. Through hands-on individual and team competitions, the program highlights the nexus of critical infrastructure and cybersecurity.
In this year’s contest, 149 students from 77 universities and colleges entered a virtual escape room to help their character, DUDE, conquer five levels of varying technical skills and challenges in order to escape. Not every challenge provided immediate progression or support and students had to use cybersecurity, computer science, mathematics, and critical thinking skills to traverse to the next level. Wittenborn helped DUDE escape all five levels in the fastest time and was declared the Reign champion.
“I am excited to see another successful Conquer the Hill Reign competition and the ingenuity and hard work of this year’s competitors,” said Puesh M. Kumar, Director of CESER. “Competitions like Reign enhance skills and drive interest in joining the nation’s rising cyber energy workforce. Congratulations to the winner, Hunter Wittenborn from the University of Alabama at Huntsville!”
“Reign provides a unique and fun educational opportunity for students to absorb complex topics in a relatable way,” said Amanda Theel, national laboratory lead of the CyberForce Program and group leader of Workforce Development in Argonne’s Strategic Security Sciences division. “Ideally, these students can take what they learned in a competition and use that experience to build confidence within this field.”
The need for workers with sophisticated cyber skills is increasing. From January 2023 to January 2024, there were only 82 workers available for every 100 cybersecurity job openings in the U.S., according to 2023 CyberSeek data from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
The CyberForce Program includes the team-based CyberForce Competition®, webinars, virtual career fairs, and an online workforce portal. Students develop skills, find job opportunities, and stay informed about upcoming events and training.
For more information about the CyberForce Program and upcoming events, please visit the CyberForce website.
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