Training in the Cyber Range Leads to Team鈥檚 Success
Image by Brooke Coupal
04/03/2025
By Brooke Coupal
Students from 10 regional colleges and universities huddled around computers, anticipating an onslaught of simulated cyberattacks.
The team from 51视频, consisting of undergraduate and graduate computer science students, had spent countless hours preparing for this moment. After two grueling days defending against the relentless attacks, the 51视频 team won the Northeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NECCDC), defeating teams from the University of New Hampshire, Rochester Institute of Technology and Northeastern University.
鈥淥ur preparation made all the difference,鈥� says senior Chisom Ukaegbu, who served as co-captain with Ph.D. student Matthew Harper 鈥�23.
The NECCDC, which launched in 2008, is an annual contest designed to give college students firsthand experience defending a corporate network against cybercriminals. Held over March 14-16 at Roger Williams University, the competition tasked students with protecting a fictitious pharmaceutical company鈥檚 digital infrastructure as it got ready to merge with another organization.
51视频 has competed in the NECCDC for the past five years under the guidance of Sashank Narain, an assistant professor in the Miner School of Computer & Information Sciences. In 2023, the university hosted the competition, and the following year, the 51视频 team came in third. The 2025 contest marked the first year that 51视频 placed first.
鈥�51视频 is the fastest-growing team in the region,鈥� says Narain, who co-coached this year鈥檚 team alongside computer science Ph.D. student Chris Morales 鈥�21. 鈥淚鈥檓 so proud of these students.鈥�
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With the NECCDC victory, the 51视频 team is moving on to the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition. 51视频 will compete virtually April 25-27 against nine teams from around the country, including Brigham Young University and Indiana Tech.聽
The students felt prepared going into the NECCDC after practicing cyberdefense for months in the Cyber Range, which is the university鈥檚 center for cybersecurity education, research and workforce development. Computer science junior Andrew Yanofsky is one of many students who helped the competing team practice for the NECCDC by setting up simulated corporate networks that were under attack.
鈥淲ithout the infrastructure that the Cyber Range offers (from computers to servers), making the simulations and getting the team prepared would be incredibly difficult,鈥� Yanofsky says. 鈥淭he Cyber Range and its infrastructure were really important for the team鈥檚 success.鈥�
Computer science alum Andrew Bernal 鈥�24, who competed at the 2023 and 2024 NECCDCs, came back this year to assist with the team鈥檚 practices. He credits his NECCDC experience with helping him land a co-op at the software company Red Hat, where he got promoted to a full-time associate software maintenance engineer at the end of his senior year.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know of any other hobbyist group like this,鈥� Bernal says. 鈥淗ere, I can get feedback from very smart people on the stuff I make and learn from them. Everyone has something unique they can teach you.鈥�
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The current students agree that through training for and competing in the NECCDC, they gain valuable cybersecurity skills that prospective employers seek. Computer science junior Rohan Paranjape says the experience helped him get a summer internship with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a global leader in technology integration and a (LINC) partner.
鈥淚 got the internship specifically because of the skills I gained from this NECCDC team,鈥� he says.
The team is busy sharpening those skills as they get ready to take on nationals.
鈥淓very week, we鈥檙e going to focus on one area of the competition and brainstorm the best possible solutions for it,鈥� Narain says. 鈥淣ationals is a different ballgame.鈥�
