{"id":207400,"date":"2026-04-30T09:16:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T13:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/30\/wsu-student-team-takes-first-at-national-cyber-competition-wsu-insider\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T09:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T13:30:09","slug":"wsu-student-team-takes-first-at-national-cyber-competition-wsu-insider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/30\/wsu-student-team-takes-first-at-national-cyber-competition-wsu-insider\/","title":{"rendered":"WSU student team takes first at national cyber competition | WSU Insider"},"content":{"rendered":"

WSU student team takes first at national cyber competition | WSU Insider<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/news.wsu.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/30\/wsu-student-team-takes-first-at-national-cyber-competition\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-04-30 09:16:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: news.wsu.edu<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n

A team of Washington State University computer science students recently earned first\u00a0place in the 2026\u00a0VICEROY National Cyber Competition called The Guardian Prevails.<\/p>\n

The event was held during the annual VICEROY Symposium at the College of William & Mary on April\u00a014.<\/p>\n

Drawing students from across the U.S., the competition requires students to solve realistic cybersecurity challenges. VICEROY, which stands for Virtual Institutes for Cyber and Electromagnetic Spectrum Research and Employ, is a Department of Defense-funded initiative designed to train students in cyber-spectrum skills, operations, and research. The competitions aim to help develop a skilled cybersecurity workforce for national defense, according to the initiative\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

WSU team members who won the competition included Sean Hodgson, Adam Caudle, Cole Wilson, Justin Van\u00a0Der\u00a0Sluys, and Andy Sorge, undergraduates in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was an incredible opportunity to put our flexibility, ingenuity, and systems understanding to the test in high-stakes, realistic simulated environments,\u201d said senior Adam Caudle. \u201cIt\u2019s a testament to what can be achieved when a team brings their A-game.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was an incredible opportunity to put our flexibility, ingenuity, and systems understanding to the test in high-stakes, realistic simulated environments.
\nAdam Caudle, studentWashington State University<\/p>\n

The students are part of WSU\u2019s CySER (Cybersecurity Education and Research) Institute, which came about as a result of an initial $1.5\u00a0million award from the VICEROY Initiative in 2021. The program established a thriving cyberoperations research and teaching center at WSU, where training is provided to ROTC and DOD-skilled civilian workers in computer science and other majors in cyber basics, operations, or defense, offering bachelor\u2019s degrees as well as specialized certificates. Participating students receive training that integrates cybersecurity research and education with professional skills in teamwork, communication, leadership, and lifelong learning. In recent years, WSU has also instituted a bachelor\u2019s degree in cybersecurity, and last year, the university was named a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Research (CAE-R) by the U.S.\u00a0National Security Agency (NSA).<\/p>\n

The Cybersecurity Group student club gives students the chance to meet and learn about cybersecurity topics. Students participate in competitions online and regionally.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was thrilling to watch the CyberCougs Crimson team compete in the finals at the VICEROY Symposium!\u201d said Assefaw Gebremedhin, Berry Family Distinguished Associate Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the group\u2019s advisor. \u201cCyberCougs Crimson eventually came on top closely followed by the other four\u00a0teams within the VICEROY network. Congratulations to all top\u00a05 teams on their incredible achievements and performance!\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the competition, two WSU\u00a0student groups also presented research posters at the symposium on safeguarding large language models from cyberattacks and on Assimilate: A Takedown Resistant Botnet Simulation. Students who presented included William Fralia, Emily West, and their mentor, Tashi Stirewalt and Justin Van\u00a0Der\u00a0Sluys, Sean Hodgson, and Fredy Fernandez.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WSU student team takes first at national cyber competition | WSU Insider https:\/\/news.wsu.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/30\/wsu-student-team-takes-first-at-national-cyber-competition\/ Publish Date:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":207401,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/news\/uploads\/sites\/2797\/2026\/04\/VICEROYchamps.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-207400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-cybersecurity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207400"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207400"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207402,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207400\/revisions\/207402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}