Peninsula CyberPatriot Team Is Finalist for National Competition

For the fourth year in a row, a CyberPatriot Team from Palos Verdes Peninsula High School will be among 12 finalists to compete in the National CyberPatriot Competition in National Harbor, Md. in March.

"I just can't believe these kids did it again," an excited Peninsula High School Principal Mitzi Cress told Patch.

Team Captain Bethany Grenier, Joseph Cooney, Matthieu Kirkland, Garrett Potvin, Garrett Thomas, Russel Wakugawa, alternate Robert Bacon and alternate Trevor Melton are members of the Peninsula High National CyberPatriot Finalist Team.

Created by the Air Force Association to excite high school students about science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, the CyberPatriot competition aims to educate students in cyber security. Competitors go through all security settings of a computer's operating system with the goal of maintaining functionality while preventing others from hacking the system.

More than 600 teams—six from Peninsula High School—participated in the open competition this year.

"Peninsula High students have consistently demonstrated outstanding abilities and knowledge in this competition since it was first made available to them four years ago when they placed seventh in the nation," according to a news release from the school. "Since then, they have placed as high as third and continue to outperform most schools in the country."

The high school's other five CyberPatriot teams have two more opportunities to compete in state and regional finals. State awards will be given out at the State Recognition Round on Feb. 21-23. If a Peninsula High team is among the top in California, the team advances to the Regional Recognition Round on March 7-9.

The following teams from Peninsula High School will compete in the State Recognition Round: 

• TEAM 2 - Anson Tsai, Brian Zhang, Casey Schneider, Daniel Suh, Eric Mendoza, Janeline Wong, Puya Moayer, and Tim Au

• TEAM 3 - Andrew Arrieta, Chris Gonzalez, Chris Kim, Emmet Pan, Jasmine Kim, Justin Kang, Kijung Kim, Sean Nam,  and Shannon Chen

• TEAM 4 - Aaron Amirpanah, Alexander Winslow, Ethan Uetrecht, Jacob King, Nader Atout, Ranger Woodland, Rishi Gattu, and Will Mbomeda

• TEAM 5 - Aaron Lin, Aryan Sonya, Blake Thomas, Brian Kardos, Chris Yoon, Lucy Wang, Matia Celic,  Reed Schrier, and Zirui Jiang

• TEAM 6 - Elliot Miller, Grant Watts, Hussam Malik, Ian Liu, Taehyun Kim, Vivian Tsai, Jacob Nicolello, Adeline Wang and Keenan Lau 

All teams are coached by Engineering Department Chairman Hassan Twiet and parent volunteers Greg and Elizabeth Grenier. The teams receive financial support from the Peninsula Education Foundation and parent donations.