DOE CyberForce Director Amanda Theel presents National Championship trophy at UCF

April 18, 2023

Amanda Theel, Director for the Department of Energy’s CyberForce Competition, visited UCF and toured the Lockheed Martin Cyber Innovation Lab on April 18th. During her visit, she presented the National Championship trophy to the team of students who won the CyberForce National Championship in November 2022. Director Theel spoke about the continual growth of the CyberForce Competition which started in 2016 as a regional competition sponsored by Argonne National Laboratory. She commended UCF for consistenty representing Florida in the competition since 2017 and complemented Dr. Tom Nedorost, UCF’s coach, for his continuedl dedication and service to UCF’s team. During the most recent competition, 144 teams from 109 institution (more than 900 students) participated including 25 teams from minority serving institutions. This was the first time that schools could enter more than one team in the competition. UCF entered two teams who finished in 1st and 2nd Place in true UCF style. This is the third time UCF has won the CyberForce National Champion after previously winning in 2021 and 2018 and finishing 2nd Place overall in 2020, 2019, and 2017. This year’s 1st Place team included (L-to-R): Matthew McKeever (CS-JR), Aiden Durand (MS-CS&P), Jeffrey DiVincent (CS-SR), Director Amanda Theel, Caitlin Whitehead (MS-DF), Christopher Fischer (MS-CS&P), and Cameron Whitehead (MS-DF).