MADISON, S.D., December 11, 2018 – The six members of Dakota State University’s defensive security competition team have a major accomplishment to add to... Chris Loutsch On No. 4 CyberForce Team in Nation

MADISON, S.D., December 11, 2018 – The six members of Dakota State University’s defensive security competition team have a major accomplishment to add to their résumés.

Peter Engels, Hunter DeMeyer, Kyle Korman, Chris Loutsch, Austin Fritzemeier, and Micah Flack made up the DSU team that placed fourth in the nation at the recent CyberForce Competition. This contest is sponsored by the Department of Energy (DOE), and is hosted at seven DOE lab locations across the country; DSU’s team competed at Argonne National Labs in Illinois.

Engels is a senior network and security administration major from Minneota, Minnesota, DeMeyer is a junior computer science major form Solon, Ohio; Korman is a junior cyber operations major from Grand Forks, North Dakota D; Loutsch is a junior cyber operations major from Milbank, South Dakota; Fritzemeier is a junior cyber operations major from Brookings, South Dakota; and Flack is a cyber operations junior from Bemidji, Minnesota.

“This competition represented the whole package of defensive security,” said Cody Welu, assistant professor of computer and cyber sciences, and club advisor. The students worked with hardware, software, and networking in the system of a mock oil company.

The DSU students scored higher than teams from Purdue University, Brigham Young University, and the California schools of UC-Davis and UC-Berkeley. Out of the 64 teams competing, the University of Central Florida took first, Kansas State finished in second place, and Oregon State third.

A few days after the competition, the team talked about their experience at the Defensive Security Club meeting. The technical jargon and acronyms used in the presentation didn’t intimidate the students; they were inspired by the presentation.

“We come to the club because we enjoy this,” said Jordan Entz, a senior cyber operations major from Wichita, Kansas. The team’s success is inspiring because you do what you enjoy, he said. Hearing about the team’s success “makes me want to do it next year,” said Kaytlyn Schaefer, a freshman from Plankinton, South Dakota.

Inspiration is one goal of the DOE-sponsored competitions, which provides a hands-on cyber education for college students and professionals, creates an awareness of the critical infrastructure and cyber security nexus, and give students a basic understanding of cyber security within a real-world scenario.

It’s also about workforce development. The DOE CyberForce website says there will be 1.5 million unfilled cybersecurity careers by 2019. Potential employers were at the competition, and Loutsch talked with some who noted this competition would look good on their résumés.

DeMeyer did point out that “It’s not all about the competition, it’s also about good friends.” None of the students had worked together before, but they made a good team. “And I think we represented DSU well,” Engels said.

December 1, 2018 photo provided by Dakota State University.

DSU’s CyberForce Competition team placed fourth in the nation. Team members are: Austin Fritzemeier, Micah Flack, Kyle Korman, Chris Loutsch, advisor Cody Welu, Peter Engels, and Hunter DeMeyer.

Dakota State University (DSU) is located in Madison, S.D. Founded in 1881, DSU offers undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral programs through its colleges of arts and sciences, business and information systems, computer and cyber sciences, and education. DSU has a special focus on the development, application, implications, and impacts of computing, information technologies and cyber security in all areas of human endeavor. DSU has received multiple Center of Excellence designations in education, research and regional resource development from the U.S. National Security Agency and U.S. Department of Homeland Security. DSU is home to the Madison Cyber Labs (MadLabs), a cyber R&D hub with labs and institutes that explore and advance technology application, workforce development, business expansion, economic growth, and policy improvement across multiple disciplines and fields. For more information, contact mediarelations@dsu.edu, 605-270-3816, or visit the DSU website at dsu.edu.

Story Submitted by Dakota State University.

Staff Writer

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