Three teams represented the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts in the recent JOLT Cyber Challenge sponsored by The Venture Center with one finishing in fourth place.
The JOLT Cyber Challenge is an annual event that brings together teams from across the state to participate in a two-day long competition to solve computer science-based puzzles, often involving subjects such as decryption, programming and cyber security.
This year’s event was held Oct. 7-8 at the Jack Stephens Center on the University of Arkansas at Little Rock campus. The competition featured 26 teams with about 40 percent representing professionals in the field, 40 percent college students and 20 percent high school level or below.
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Team members of ASMSA’s fourth-place team included Vicky Zhu, Robert Boerwinkle, Buddha Moore and Brent Orlina. The team also won the Clock Award for being the fastest to solve a reverse engineering challenge.
“Even though I participated last year, I still learned so much this year,” Zhu said. “Other than the knowledge I learned, I had great conversations with college students and professionals. JOLT has always been my favorite hackathon.”
ASMSA’s other two teams finished 10th and 13th respectively. Team members were James Mathis, Geoffrey Williams, Jayden Patel, Parker Hance, Ivy Monroe, Rene Ramirez, Arnav Karekar and Kelvin Orduna.
The first-place team from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville included Karsen Beck, an ASMSA 2020 graduate.