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A team of seven William Paterson University students placed in the top 5 percent of more than 4,800 teams in this academic year’s National Cyber League (NCL) Cybersecurity Competition. The student-competitors are majors in computer science or information technology.
Providing participants with real-world cybersecurity challenges, the competition is designed to help students develop and demonstrate their skills. Over the course of three days, students face off on issues in open-source intelligence, cryptography, password cracking, log analysis, network traffic analysis, web application security, and forensics.
The high-performing WP team consisted of students from the University’s Networking Club: Divine Dickson-Uwakwe, Mia Herrera, Wilton Lizardo, Bibek Neupane, Amaury Polanco, John Sam-Bruce, and Amil Uddin.
Computer science professor Kiho Lim, the Networking Club advisor, served as the team’s coach.
“The NCL Cybersecurity Competition enables students to apply their classroom knowledge to real-world scenarios. The competition challenges them to go beyond theory and develop hands-on experience in solving practical cybersecurity problems,” Professor Lim says.
This experience is invaluable, Lim says, as it makes students more job-ready and confident, overall.
“Also, it provides valuable networking opportunities, allowing students to connect with peers, mentors, and industry professionals, including potential employers, which can lead to internships, job opportunities, and career advancement,” he adds.
The scenario-based challenges reinforce objectives found on exams required for professional certifications, including those offered by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) and the EC-Council’s CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker). Such exams are the industry standard for both entry-level and advanced information technology jobs.
This year marked the third that William Paterson University took part in the NCL Cybersecurity Competition.
02/13/25
