Paulines competing in the Cyber Centurion have done incredibly well, with the two SPS teams successfully passing the third round of the competition over the weekend.
Two teams of six and five pupils have taken part in the competition, a three-round national cyber security contest run ultimately by the US Air Force Strategic Cyber Command, which runs over the autumn and spring terms.
Teams are given three images – normally Windows, Linux and another unknown operating system – with vulnerabilities that must be patched to secure points. The rounds get progressively harder to challenge all teams, with the top teams invited to the final round.
As reported in St Paul’s News, the School’s termly newspaper, the two SPS teams scored highly in the first round of the competition, and have now advanced to the final. The third round on Sunday saw the Lower Eighth team, consisting of pupils Anthony Bennett, Josh Waha, Buster Parr, Reef Boericke, Aidan McGinnie and Rufus Marshall, finish in third place. The second team, competing in the Cyber Centurion for the first time, consisted of Umer Hasan, David Khatchaturov (both Lower Eighth), David Jay, Thomas Dhome-Casanova (both Sixth Form) and Fifth Former Otto Heese, and secured the top title of first place.
Both teams now “impatiently” await the final, taking place in the last week of April, and have expressed that a key take away from the competition is “the answer to all Unix based problems is always import Otto”.
St Paul’s students excelled in the Bebras Computing Thinking Challenge, with numerous participants scoring full marks and ranking highly in both the Inters (Fourth Form) and Senior (Fifth and Sixth Form) age groups.
On Tuesday, 26 November, 13 schools – including SPGS, Harrodian, and both Tiffin Schools – gathered at SPS to compete in a heat of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Top of the Bench competition.
During Wednesday lunch, seven 34 Lower Eighth students gathered in Lab 4 to compete for the honour of representing SPS next February in the Chemistry Race
The Hans Woyda team delivered an outstanding performance, defeating Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School 59–34 in Round 2, with impressive teamwork, strategic brilliance, and a clean sweep in key sections, setting the stage for a high-stakes Round 3 against Highgate School.
