Computing Students Take Part in MAGIC Competition

HND Computing students from SERC Bangor campus recently competed in the Mid-Atlantic Gigabit Innovation Collaboratory (MAGIC) Capture the Flag 16 competition. 

MAGIC sponsors student programming to enhance workforce development for technology companies, particularly in the cybersecurity industry. They host entry-level competitions aimed at students interested in pursuing a career in cybersecurity. SERC Bangor Computing students recently took part in one of these competitions – an introductory Capture the Flag competition, which allows participants to get a feel for the cyber process in an environment designed to help competitors learn logical thinking skills and to work as a team.   

As part of the competition, students completed a range of cyber challenges to earn points. The challenges are broken down into difficulty levels. Level 0 challenges are basic introduction puzzles, while Levels 1, 2, and 3 puzzles become progressively more difficult and required additional time.

Oskar Dudgeon, who took part in the competition, said, “It was really fun to take part in a competition and be able to work alongside teammates on tasks. This competition had a range of tasks to complete which dealt with encryption, programming, using software such as Wireshark to find specific information, and investigating certain computer files. It was an event targeted towards everyone which made it feel inclusive to a wide group of people, no matter what stage of computing education they were at. Overall, this competition was a great way to display that as a group you can go far - my team had a range of diverse skills which helped in different areas.” 

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