Cyber Security Challenge Finals

Three students — Isabelle Nightingale (11Burrows), Kathy Nightingale (12Burrows), and Evie Castle (12King) — recently represented the school at the ACE-CSE Cyber Competition Finals held at the University of Surrey. Reaching the finals was an impressive achievement in itself: the twelve finalist teams were selected from 50 teams who successfully completed a series of fiendishly difficult cyber security challenges during the autumn term.

The day began with students meeting at the Alan Turing statue, before attending a welcome talk and insight into the importance of cybersecurity in society. The main competition then took place in the Ada Lovelace Computer Lab, where teams tackled a range of cyber “Capture-the-Flag” style challenges testing their problem-solving, programming, and cybersecurity skills.

After lunch, students took part in an engaging AI workshop in the same lab, giving them the opportunity to explore how artificial intelligence is being applied within cybersecurity and computing more broadly. The day concluded with the awards ceremony and wrap-up.

Our team thoroughly enjoyed the experience and performed exceptionally well, receiving an Honourable Mention and finishing just 0.5 points behind the prize-winners — an outstanding result in such a highly competitive field. Well done to all three students for representing the school so brilliantly!

Helen Williams, Team Leader of Computer Science