Earlier this month, Rensselaer students in Information Technology and Web Science (ITWS) competed in CyberSEED 2023 at the University of Connecticut with impressive results. Hosted by the Connecticut Cybersecurity Center, CyberSEED brings together dozens of universities and colleges to compete in unique cybersecurity challenges for prizes. The Rensselaer team, called “It’s snowing @ RPI,” placed 17th out of 192 teams. They were in the top 9%!

“I am truly proud of how our team was able to incorporate players new and old into an incredibly successful team,” said Brian Callahan, lecturer in ITWS and graduate program director. “This shows how elite the skills of our cybersecurity students are. I am proud that the Rensselaer Cybersecurity Collaboratory hosts RPI’s premiere Capture The Flag team and I look forward to their future successes.”

Half of Rensselaer’s team was inexperienced with cybersecurity competitions, making the accomplishment even more impressive.

“CyberSEED was my first experience with security competitions,” said Shanelle Kan ’25. “I learned about the various resources and tools we can use to tackle a variety of problems. Overall, it was an exciting opportunity to work collaboratively with other students and solve complex problems.”

"This was my first security competition ever,” added Jenny Gao ’23. “I really enjoyed working alongside my teammates to solve the problems. I learned a lot about tools used in the field and would encourage anyone who wants to learn more to compete!"

Christopher Reed ’24, Kan, Ray Shi ’23, and Gao competed as a team in CyberSEED.