MITRE’s 2024 Embedded Capture the Flag Competition Concludes with Record Participation from Future STEM Workforce
May 01 2024 - 8:05AM
Business Wire
Student competition supported by NEMC Hub grant
through the Department of Defense Microelectronics Commons
Program
MITRE’s 2024 Embedded Capture the Flag™ (eCTF) competition
concluded this past week, marked by an awards ceremony held at JFK
Library. The awards ceremony, sponsored by Fortinet, provided an
opportunity for the top student competitors to share their
accomplishments, meet participants from other schools, and interact
with MITRE and eCTF partners and sponsors.
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First place team members from Carnegie
Mellon University. (Photo: Business Wire)
CHIPS and Science Act grant invests in future STEM
workforce
Investing in the future STEM workforce ensures a pipeline of
skilled professionals equipped to tackle emerging technological
frontiers. In January, the Massachusetts Healey-Driscoll
Administration announced $1.5 million of a total $9.2 million in
investments made by the Northeast Microelectronics Coalition (NEMC)
Hub to workforce development, education, and student
engagement.
The Hub is a division of the Massachusetts Technology
Collaborative (MassTech). The collaborative was established through
federal CHIPS and Science Act funding under the Microelectronics
Commons program executed through the Naval Surface Warfare Center
Crane Division and the National Security Technology Accelerator
(NSTXL). NEMC grant funding was allocated to four distinct programs
and initiatives that “aim to expand engagement to students across
the northeast region.” Of the allotted $1.5 million, eCTF was the
recipient of $750,000 for their efforts to build a strong cyber
workforce.
“Providing hands-on experiences to attract and educate the
future cybersecurity workforce helps ensure U.S. microelectronics
competitiveness in critical areas including secure embedded
systems,” said Mark Halfman, director, NEMC Hub. “The eCTF
competition demonstrates a commitment to important investments in
our nation’s future workforce. We are excited by MITRE’s membership
in the NEMC Hub and are pleased to support their dedication to
preparing young talent with the skills they need to take on these
new, innovative opportunities.”
“As our nation works to address critical STEM workforce
shortages and grow tech talent, MITRE is proud to be part of the
solution,” said Laurie Giandomenico, Ph.D., senior vice president
and chief acceleration officer, MITRE. “The United States is making
historic investments to secure global leadership in
microelectronics and semiconductors, and scalable programs like
MITRE’s Embedded Capture the Flag competition can help attract and
train a diverse workforce essential to the development of secure
microelectronics systems and supply chains.
Competition unlike any other
MITRE’s eCTF develops practical skills for securing critical
embedded systems, such as uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV), smart
grids, and medical devices. The realistic competition balances
offense and defense practices not found in standard attack-only
CTFs. Sponsoring companies have an opportunity to connect with
emerging cybersecurity experts, giving them early access to
tomorrow’s industry leaders.
“At Fortinet, we’re committed to addressing the skills shortage
by developing the workforce of the future through initiatives like
this one,” said Rob Rashotte, vice president of Fortinet Training
Institute and Global Field Enablement. “We’re thrilled to once
again support MITRE’s eCTF as a way to help develop critical
security skills that help build the next generation of security
professionals and potentially help attract new entrants to the
cyber workforce.”
A record-breaking 773 students from 95 different institutions
participated in this year’s competition. Teams were challenged to
design and implement a supply chain security solution for
microcontrollers on a medical device. The system had to securely
verify the device integrity while keeping sensitive data
confidential.
The 2024 eCTF competition winners:
- First place overall, winning $10,000 — Carnegie Mellon
University
- Second place overall, winning $5,000 — University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign
- Third place overall, winning $2,500 — Purdue University
Additional Awards:
- Top High School, Delaware Area Career Center, $2,500
- Best Poster, Purdue University, $2,500
- Responsible Disclosure, Carnegie Mellon University, $2,500
“Year after year, the MITRE eCTF competition raises the bar for
cybersecurity excellence, and this year’s event showcased the most
intense competition yet,” said Maverick Woo, student advisor and
project scientist, CyLab, Carnegie Mellon University. “Many top
teams demonstrated a remarkable maturity in their technical skills,
which speaks volumes about the value and impact of the eCTF
experience.”
Learn more about the annual competition.
About MITRE
MITRE’s mission-driven teams are dedicated to solving problems
for a safer world. Through our public-private partnerships and
federally funded R&D centers, we work across government and in
partnership with industry to tackle challenges to the safety,
stability, and well-being of our nation.
About MITRE Engenuity
MITRE Engenuity™, a subsidiary of MITRE, is a tech foundation
for the public good. MITRE Engenuity brings MITRE’s deep technical
know-how and systems thinking to the private sector to solve
complex challenges that government alone cannot solve. MITRE
Engenuity catalyzes the collective R&D strength of the broader
U.S. federal government, academia, and private sector to tackle
national and global challenges, such as protecting critical
infrastructure, creating a resilient semiconductor ecosystem,
building a genomics center for public good, accelerating use case
innovation in 5G, and democratizing threat-informed cyber
defense.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240501819724/en/
Media: Sarah Lytle, media@mitre.org