WVU Parkersburg cybersecurity students excel in national competition
WVU Parkersburg cybersecurity students excel in national competition
https://www.wtap.com/2026/01/12/wvu-parkersburg-cybersecurity-students-excel-national-competition/
Publish Date: 2026-01-12 18:24:00
Source Domain: www.wtap.com
Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. VIENNA, W.Va. (WTAP) – Students enrolled in Introduction to Security at WVU Parkersburg placed high at the National Cyber League competition last fall.Doug Rhodes, associate professor at WVU Parkersburg, taught the sophomore level course last semester and redesigned the course last summer.“I’m using open-educational resources so the students don’t pay for a book. I developed chapters around the National Cyber League domains like open-source intelligence and password cracking. I developed texts around that. The students then used the National Cyber League’s Gym as a practice area to apply the theory to exercises,” Rhodes said.The National Cyber League’s Gym helped prepare the students for the National Cyber League competition.Six teams and nineteen students overall from WVU Parkersburg participated in both individual and team competitions.All six teams placed in the top fifteen percent nationally among over 4,200 teams.With it being the first semester of the redesigned course, students weren’t expecting to place high.“We obviously weren’t expecting to go into the game placing that well, so we can take a little pride and see all the hard work we put in over the semester pay off,” said Ashton Jackson, student in the class.“Surprising. I think there was around 4,000 teams, a little more than that. We placed all within the top 1,000, which is pretty crazy, but also speaks to how well the class was prepared for and prepped. Not just by the teacher, but by the hard work students put in, which is really cool,” said Brian Paul, student in the class.“Very surprised. I did not expect to be that high for our team in that competition. So, it’s very surprising, but also very exciting to see how well we did,” said Ethan Rowan, student in the class.Rhodes said that his students crushed not only the competition but the entire semester.“We met two days a week for our regular class meeting. We would do a little reading comprehension check at the beginning of class, I might’ve demoed a little thing here and there, but for the most part they read on the weekend, came to class, and applied, applied, applied. A lot of their success weighs on them,” Rhodes said.Introduction to Security is taught in the fall and spring.Rhodes said that his students will continue to compete at the competition over the upcoming semesters.See an error in our reporting? Send us an email by clicking here!Copyright 2026 WTAP. All rights reserved.
