Teams from Conway High School took two of the top three places at the HighSchoolHack competition held at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts.
HighSchoolHack is an all-day computer science competition for Arkansas high school students. The event features a series of challenges and puzzles focusing on reverse engineering, cryptography, programming, pen testing, web vulnerabilities, forensics and more. The competition’s “Jeopardy”-style, capture-the-flag format helps participants develop knowledge in computer science and cybersecurity through fun and games.
Conway High teams won first and third place in the competition held May 6. First-place team members included Chris Ablondi, Ellie Feng, Matthew Ringgold and Elijah Eberhard. Bryant High School took second place.
“I came last year and enjoyed it, so I decided I wanted to come back,” Ringgold said. “All I ever hope to take away from these is the memories and some new knowledge.”
Feng said that she wanted to “have fun and get an axolotl plush while also learning about cool computer things and cyber stuff.The challenges for HighSchoolHack were created by ASMSA students. Jayden Patel, one of the game makers, remarked, "Seeing the students both struggle and ultimately succeed perfectly outlined the learning process."
Brent Orlina, another game maker, said, "Guiding students through the challenges and watching them slowly get to the right answer was an awesome experience. It was also great seeing creative solutions to some of the challenges, which let me learn some new things as well."
Event organizer Nicholas Seward, a computer science instructor at ASMSA, congratulated Conway High School for its performance.
"Conway is the school to beat in the future. They have both a strong computer science program and talented students. The winning team was so dominant that I am offering to make them game makers for next year's competition."
For more information about the HighSchoolHack event, visit http://highschoolhack.me.