Why is San Diego’s Mayor Kevin Faulconer promoting a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) competition… and how is Cubic involved?
Established in 2010 by the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), the San Diego Mayor’s Cyber Cup seeks to find and encourage the best budding cyber security talent in Southern California’s middle and high schools. This year, Cubic was a proud sponsor of the event by mentoring a Cyber Cup team and providing a donation towards the overall prize. By Cubic matching Securing Our eCity Foundation’s donation, overall scholarship amount increased to $10,000 to reward the finalists and support future cyber-competition events.
This year, Canyon Crest Academy was selected as Cubic’s sponsored team. The team had more than four years of experience and won last year’s competition. The students completed impressive exercises in cryptology, network defense and vulnerability exploitation; they were very organized and used social media to interact and communicate observations, discoveries and techniques. Canyon Crest Academy competed in the final round of the Cyber Cup the weekend of March 28 at the University of California, San Diego Supercomputer Center and took home sixth place.
- Goals of the San Diego Mayor’s Cyber Cup competition:
- Use the competition as a platform to promote STEM activities that are important to the community
- Encourage students to learn more about information assurance and computer security
- Provide an educational venue in which students are able to apply the theories and practical skills they have learned
- Foster a spirit of teamwork, ethical behavior and effective communication both within and across teams
- Create interest and awareness among participating schools and students
- Encourage students to consider information assurance and computer security as possible career paths or courses of study in higher education
In addition to the San Diego Mayor’s Cyber Cup, Cubic also supported the 2015 San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering – Expo Day at Petco Park. Expo Day at Petco Park is the Festival’s culminating event with more than 130 local businesses, corporations and organizations providing interactive, hands-on activities showcasing STEM from all parts of Southern California.
Cubic employees demonstrated several products, product demonstrations including the Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System (MILES) and Contactless Smart Card (CSC) Transport solution. The demos were a great opportunity to explain to potential STEM candidates how the systems work and the collection of skills necessary to create the technology including physics for optical communications, mathematics for realistic simulations and software for embedded and location computing.
Cubic is a strong supporter of STEM education in San Diego and globally, and values the importance of passing the baton to the next-generation of experts in science, technology, engineering and math. By participating in community programs such as the Mayor’s Cyber Cup and the San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering, we hope to inspire today’s youth to become the leaders of tomorrow. We look forward to seeing all of the impressive students at next year’s events!