Five pupils from Bradford Grammar School (BGS) have qualified for the national finals of a competition to foster careers in the cybercrime fighting industry.
The team is in with a chance to win the fantastic prize of an all-expense paid trip to the United States to represent the UK internationally as part of the UK-wide CyberCenturion competition.
More than 2000 pupils took part in the competition this year, where they had to discovery and fix vulnerabilities on computers that criminals might exploit.
The successful BGS team comprises Year 12 pupils Zain Hussain, Saif Panni, Daniel McNab, Ahrus Asim and Saul McShane.
Zain Hussain, from Bradford, said: “I can’t believe it. I really did not think we would get through to the next round considering how difficult the previous challenges were, but I’m very pleased and excited to face the challenges which lie ahead.”
Ahrus agreed: “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the experience as the challenging problems were fun to solve, especially when we all worked together to try to approach the problem in different ways.”
The national final will be held at the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) in London March 8. There are ten teams from six different schools including BGS, Bayside Comprehensive School (last year’s winner from Gibraltar), Frome College (3rd time finalists), St George’s School Edgbaston, St Pauls School Barnes, and Sandbach School CCF. This year, to encourage further diversity in the competition, there were different ‘tracks’ for CyberCenturion: girls only teams, boys only teams, mixed teams and cadet teams.
Toby Birkinshaw, BGS’s teacher of computer science said: “The competition was a real test of students’ technical and problem-solving abilities. Getting through the three, six-hour rounds is an achievement in itself, but for one of our teams to make it to the national final in their first year of competing is an exceptional feat. Congratulations to all the pupils who took part.”
CyberCenturion is the UK and Overseas Territories competition that forms part of the US CyberPatriot competition. It is delivered by Cyber Security Challenge UK and sponsored by Northrop Grumman to encourage more pupils to consider careers in Cybersecurity. This is just one of the initiatives that Bradford Grammar School is involved in to attempt to address the current skills gap in Cybersecurity and other Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers.
BGS’s head of computer science, Christine Harvey said: ”It’s important that pupils find out more about Cybersecurity and how to better protect themselves and our country against online threats and cybercrime.”
Last March Bradford Grammar School hosted the inaugural Cyber Games Yorkshire and Humberside, competing against schools from across the region. A group of Year 12 pupils were among the first in the country to be awarded an Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) in Cybersecurity.
“The competition was a real test of students’ technical and problem-solving abilities. Getting through the three, six-hour rounds is an achievement in itself, but for one of our teams to make it to the national final in their first year of competing is an
exceptional feat.Congratulations to all the pupils
who took part.”
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