By Samantha Clark Five Rider seniors finished in second place among 11 teams across the eastern United States in the Oct. 9 Capture the Flag cybersecurity competition hosted by the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges Eastern.
The team consisted of computer science majors Druhv Sethi and Nakul Mittal, cybersecurity majors Ritvik Sajeev and Tanmay Agarwal and computer science and cybersecurity double major Phan An Nguyen, who fell just a few seconds behind the first-place champions after three hours of solving challenges.
With this being the first time Rider students were involved in the competition, the team went into the process blind, but their preparation is what ultimately led them to their great success.
To do so, the team researched the five major topics for the competition and had two students become well versed in each.
Assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Mathematics Jay Luo, who aided the team throughout the competition, is a committee member of the conference, placing him close to the organization.