Carnegie Mellon University to Host Second Annual Nationwide High School Computer Security Contest

Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Technical Director of CyLab at Carnegie Mellon University, David Brumley and two student-run teams will host the second annual PicoCTF competition, a nationwide computer security contest aimed at giving high school students hands-on experience learning computer science and security concepts in the context of a story-driven game. Nearly 2,000 teams from 1,000 schools participated in last year’s event.

This year’s competition will take place Monday, October 27 to Friday, November 7, 2014.

“The main goal of this competition is to excite young minds about computer security and inspire the next generation of computer scientists in our country,” said Brumley. Brumley will co-host the event with Carnegie Mellon student hacking teams Plaid Parliament of Pwning of CyLab and Team Daedalus of the Entertainment Technology Center.

PicoCTF challenges both novices and experts through a “Capture the Flag” (CTF) interactive game where participants capture virtual “flags” by reverse engineering, breaking, hacking, or decrypting challenges. Unlike traditional exams or courses, the contest offers open-ended problems that can be solved in many ways, usually requiring independent research, and encouraging student exploration.

There will be over $30,000 in prizes for this year’s event, as well as new tools designed to help teachers use PicoCTF as a classroom activity. Winners of the competition will be flown to Carnegie Mellon University for an immersion day and award presentation.

Participation in the competition is free and open to students in grades 6 – 12. Interested participants can register on the competition website: http://picoctf.com.

The event is partially supported by funds from Trend Micro, The Boeing Company, Qualcomm Incorporated, the National Science Foundation, and the National Security Agency.

About Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon (www.cmu.edu) is a private, internationally ranked university with programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business to public policy, the humanities and the arts. More than 12,000 students in the university’s seven schools and colleges benefit from a small faculty-to-student ratio and an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real world problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A global university, Carnegie Mellon’s campus in the United States is in Pittsburgh, Pa. It has campuses in California’s Silicon Valley, Qatar, and programs in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and Mexico.