The CyberAegis teams have continued their long history of winning national CyberPatriot championships.
“I’m incredibly proud of my teams winning the CyberPatriot 17 Middle School Division and the Open Division,” said longtime coach Paul Johnson. “During the brutal and intense season-long competition, the teams displayed exceptional teamwork, leadership, grit, determination and ion.”
Unlike in years past, due to policy changes in Poway Unified School District, the teams are not d with the district. Instead, they entered the contest d with the Scouting America Exploring organization.
CyberAegis Phoenix, ed through Exploring Post 2928, won the Open Division for high school-level teams. The team’s captain was Ethan Zhao, a senior. Also on the team were juniors Srijan Atti, Will Cheng and Advik Garg; sophomore Yash Parikh; and freshman Virginia Zhu. All attend Del Norte High.
“Our name was Phoenix, to represent rising from the ashes. That was our inspiration,” said Zhao, 18.
He was on the Open Division teams that won in 2022 and 2023, but was the runner-up last year.
“Since we lost the previous season, it was so cool that we won the next year,” he said.
Coming in fourth place in the Open Division was CyberAegis Veritas, also ed through Exploring Post 2928. Its team captain was Ian V. Wu, a junior. Also on the team were senior Jadon Lee; sophomores Mihir Bapat, Risha Guha and Jacob Wu; and freshman Dhyan Soni. All attend Del Norte High.
CyberAegis Odyssey, ed through Exploring Club 2927, won the Middle School Division. The team’s captain was Evyn Zhao, an eighth-grader and Ethan Zhao’s brother. Also on the team were eighth-graders Samarth Hande, Siddharth Hota, Pranay Kamath and Adya Shipekar; and sixth-grader Arya Bhatt. All attend Oak Valley Middle School in 4S Ranch.
Evyn Zhao, 14, said he ed CyberAegis last year and that team also won the national championship. He was the only repeat entrant from that team to be on Odyssey.
“I like cybersecurity in general and the whole idea of protecting servers and machines,” Evyn Zhao said. “I can apply what I am learning and knowledge to other fields, which is nice and refreshing.”
The Middle School Division runner-up team was CyberAegis Stardust, ed through Exploring Club 2929. The team’s captain was Adhvay Iyer. Also on the team were Sid Anand, Rohan Chandra, Clayton Huang, Ishan Jha and Aavi Sharma. All are eighth-graders at Design 39 Campus in Del Sur.
“We have now won the Open Division for five of the last six years and the Middle School Division for nine of the last 10 years,” Johnson said. “This was my 10th anniversary attending the National Finals.”
Johnson said another record was also likely set with two brothers serving as captain of two national champion teams in the same year.
According to Johnson, the CyberPatriot National Championship featured 28 of the nation’s top high school and middle school teams in the finals, where in their respective divisions they went head-to-head defending networks and servers from attacks.
“Each year, the competitors grow stronger, and each year the competition gets more difficult,” Johnson said. “This year, our 24 (CyberAegis) National Finalists worked hard to stay ahead, sometimes working until 5 in the morning preparing.”
Johnson said this 17th year of competition started with 5,050 teams and 20,000 students worldwide.
“(It is) possibly the largest STEM competition in the world,” Johnson said.
The unexpected twist given to this year’s teams was a split environment, meaning the team were separated into smaller groups, a change announced just three days before the national championship began.
“We locked ourselves in our hotel rooms … to prep,” Ethan Zhao said of the added challenge. “As captain it was pretty hard helping both sides. They had to know what to do because I couldn’t be in two places at once. But my team is extremely talented and smart, so they knew what to do.”
Evyn Zhao said the unexpected late challenge was “scary” and had his team doing a lot of last minute prep work.
Ethan Zhao was also recognized as a CyberPatriot All-American because he is among a small group of competitors who qualified for the National Finals Competition during all four of their high school years.
“I did not expect it at all,” said Zhao about qualifying for the title. “There were only three All-Americans this year and 31 total, with the first in 2015. It is pretty hard to consistently be at the top of the club competition … and a lot of work to stay there.”
He ed the program while a seventh-grader at Oak Valley and his team achieved third place at nationals that year. As an eighth-grader his team won and the winning streak continued through his sophomore year.
Besides learning cybersecurity skills, Ethan Zhao said he enjoys the bonding that occurs not only with his teammates but competitors from across the country.
“We talk a lot with other teams … and our past teammates who are now in college … are willing to come back to help us,” he said. “It is a cool community where we have built up the respect of teams.”
Zhao has not yet decided which university to attend this fall, but said he plans to major in computer science.
“I see my future in either cybersecurity, artificial intelligence or quantum computing,” Zhao said. “I’d especially like to do research in those areas.”
Ethan Zhao said he was glad his younger brother also ed the program, but he made a point not to mentor Evyn so he could learn on his own.
“I wanted him to learn this stuff by himself, because if there is handholding it is more difficult since you do not have the intuition when things get hard,” Ethan Zhao said. “I gave him advice at the nationals, but that would not mean anything if he had not practiced himself.”
He added, “This is not the first time siblings won in the same year, but there have not been two siblings to win both the Middle and Open divisions while also being captains of both teams. It was exciting for me since I am graduating to be ing the torch down to him.”
Evyn Zhao said watching his older brother over the years inspired him.
“I ired the mission and accomplishments of the club and saw my brother partake, which inspired me to start in CyberAegis as soon as possible,” Evyn Zhao said.
“I like the CyberPatriot competition because it helps develop teamwork,” Evyn Zhao said. “I could not get to where I am without an amazing team.”
