PUSD Schools Dominate National Cybersecurity Competition

The Poway Unified School District is pleased to announce that PUSD cybersecurity teams from Del Norte High School, Design39Campus, and Oak Valley Middle School once again took the top spots at the annual CyberPatriot XV National Finals Competition, which took place March 18-20 in Bethesda, Maryland. CyberPatriot is part of the National Youth Cyber Education Program, started by the Air Force Association to inspire students toward careers in cybersecurity and other STEM fields. Throughout the school year, 5,584 teams competed across the country at regional CyberPatriot events to qualify for nationals. 28 of the nation’s top high school and middle school teams then went head-to-head in the finals, defending networks, servers, and mobile devices from attacks.
 
In the Open Division:
  • National Champion: CyberAegis Tempest from Del Norte High School (Also awarded 3rd place in the Cisco Networking Challenge)
  • 3rd Place: CyberAegis Drift from Del Norte High School (Also awarded 1st place in the Cisco Networking Challenge)
winning teams
In the Middle School Division:
  • National Champion: CyberAegis Vitalis from Design39Campus
  • Runner Up: CyberAegis Aeris from Oak Valley Middle School (Also awarded 1st place in the Cisco Networking Challenge)
winning teamsThe following PUSD students were named Cyber All-American Award Recipients at the 2023 CyberPatriot National Finals competition. The prestigious Cyber All-American Award is given to competitors who qualified for the National Finals all four years of their high school competition seasons: 
  • Akhil Guntur from Del Norte High School
  • Johnathan Lin from Del Norte High School
  • Akshay Rohatgi from Del Norte High School
  • Alvin Zheng from Del Norte High School
individual award winners
The CyberAegis teams are under the direction of Coach Paul Johnson, a Northrop Grumman Senior Staff Cyber Systems Engineer: “I’m extremely proud of my teams winning both the CyberPatriot Middle School Division and Open Division, for the fourth year in a row! Eight new national champion teams in four years! During the extremely difficult and intense season-long competition, the teams displayed exceptional teamwork, leadership, grit, determination, and passion.”

Previous PUSD CyberPatriot National Champions:
CyberPatriot XIV (2021-22):
Open Division National Champion: CyberAegis Flashpoint (Del Norte High School)
Middle School National Champion: CyberAegis Cobra (Design39Campus)
 
CyberPatriot XIII (2020-21):
Open Division National Champion: CyberAegis Cobalt (Del Norte High School)
Middle School National Champion: CyberAegis Technetium (Oak Valley Middle School)
 
CyberPatriot XII (2019-20):
Open Division National Champion: CyberAegis Strange Quark II (Del Norte High School)
Middle School National Champion: CyberAegis Polariton (Design39Campus)
 
CyberPatriot XI (2018-19):
Middle School National Champion: CyberAegis Chaos (Oak Valley Middle School)
 
CyberPatriot X (2017-18):
Middle School National Champion: CyberAegis Cancer Minor (Oak Valley Middle School)