DSU's CCDC team heads to national competition

Team members for the national CCDC include: Jacob Hince (back left), Austen King, Shane Donahue, Jackson Heiberger; Gaelin Shupe (front left), Cody Mayer, Tyler Thomas, Annabelle Klosterman./Dakota State University

Eight Dakota State University students will take part in a national cyber defense competition later this week. The team will compete in the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition in San Antonio, Texas this Thursday through Saturday. The eight-person team won the regional competition in February, which qualified them for the national event.

Each year the competition uses a particular theme or scenario; the students learn the details about an hour or two before they get hands-on-keyboard and start defending the systems from attacks.

The team includes three students from South Dakota, two from Minnesota, one from Iowa, and one each from California and Colorado.

Team members include:

* Shane Donahue, Cyber Operations from San Diego, CA

* Jackson Heiberger, Cyber Operations/Network Security & Administration double major, from Beresford, SD

* Jake Hince, Computer Science M.S. degree student from Buffalo, MN

* Austen King, Cyber Operations, from Volga, SD

* Annabelle Klosterman, Cyber Operations from Brandon, SD

* Cody Mayer, Cyber Operations major from Sheldon, IA

* Gaelin Shupe, Computer Science master’s student from Boulder, CO

* Tyler Thomas, a Cyber Operations major from Forest Lake, MN