ARLINGTON, Va., Oct. 29, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Air Force Association’s CyberPatriot program announced today that it has registered over 6,000 teams for its eleventh season of the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition, an increase of nearly 1,000 teams from the 2017-2018 competition year.
“We are excited to see another strong growth in teams registered for CyberPatriot XI,” said Rachel Zimmerman, CyberPatriot’s Direct of Business Operations. “We’re excited to see that we’re inspiring more youth to pursue cyber education and careers in STEM as it is critical to our nation’s future.”
The 6,387 teams registered represent all 50 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands; U.S. Department of Defense schools in Europe and the Pacific; Egypt, United Kingdom, Nigeria, Estonia, and Japan; Canada, Australia, Singapore, Hungary, Spain, Guam, and the United Arab Emirates.
CyberPatriot saw particularly remarkable growth in registration in its Open division which includes public and private high school teams and homeschool organizations, while the All Service division includes JROTC programs, Civil Air Patrol and U.S. Naval Sea Cadets. Additionally, the Middle School division also saw strong growth in registration this year.
“We look forward to this competition season. Our record-breaking number of teams will make this our biggest competition ever and bring a new level of competitiveness. New and seasoned teams will have plenty of opportunities to learn, excel, and be recognized.” said Frank Zabrowski, Senior Director of CyberPatriot Operations.
The CyberPatriot XI season, which has already begun training and practice rounds for teams worldwide, will hold Round One of the competition on Nov. 2, 2018. The top 28 teams from the online rounds will travel to Baltimore, Md., for the CyberPatriot XI National Finals Competition April 7-11, 2019. There, national finalists will have the opportunity to compete for national honors and scholarships, as well as the opportunity to network with industry sponsors.
CyberPatriot, the nation's largest and fastest growing youth cyber education program, is AFA's flagship STEM program dedicated to strengthening cyber skills among students. The program features the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition for high school and middle school students, AFA CyberCamps, an Elementary School Cyber Education Initiative, and CyberGenerations, a recently added senior citizen cyber safety program.
Supporters of CyberPatriot include the Northrop Grumman Foundation, CyberPatriot's Presenting Sponsor, as well as Cyber Diamond sponsors AT&T, Boeing, Cisco, Microsoft, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Cyber Gold sponsors Facebook, Riverside Research, Splunk, and Symantec; Cyber Silver sponsors Air Force STEM, Air Force Reserve, American Military University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Leidos, Mastercard, and University of Maryland University College; and Cyber Partner sponsors Exostar, ICF, Liberty University, Shepard, and Tenable.
The Air Force Association is a non-profit, independent, professional military and aerospace education association. Our mission is to promote a dominant United States Air Force and a strong national defense, and to honor Airmen and our Air Force Heritage.
Media Contact:
Kianna Gousby
Coordinator, Communications
kgousby@afa.org
703-247-5847