Baker College Students Win First and Third Place in Statewide Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition

Photo of members from Baker College's Flint and Owosso cyber defense teams.

Student teams from two campuses at Baker College, Michigan’s largest, private not-for-profit college and the top private transfer school in the state, recently earned top spots at the annual Michigan Collegiate Cyber Defense Network competition held Feb. 15, 2020 at Davenport University.  The team from Baker College of Flint won the competition with a first-place victory, while the Baker College of Owosso students, all first-time competitors, earned a third-place finish. 

The Baker College teams competed against students from colleges across Michigan including: Eastern Michigan University, Central Michigan University, Davenport University and several community colleges.  The day-long event pitted defenders against professional hackers to determine which team could best keep their systems up-and-running, and keep the cyber intruders out, while facing an array of systems upgrades and changes that would challenge any professional IT administrator. 

The Baker College of Flint team is now training for the Great Lakes Regional competition, taking place March 13-14, 2020 in Chicago, and sponsored in part by the Air Force Civil Service and Navy Information Warfare Center.  There, the students will compete against winning teams from nine states across the Midwest region in a bid to move onto the national finals.

“These latest winning performances by our Baker student teams further demonstrate the consistent quality that our programs offer,” said Dr. Anca Sala, dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology at Baker College.  “Cybersecurity is a continually growing field with exciting, long-term career opportunities.  We’re certainly proud to be a recognized national leader in this area.”

Baker’s cybersecurity program has regularly been recognized on the competitive stage.  In addition to this latest win, since 2007, Baker’s Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition team has earned six other state championships (four of the last five years), two Midwest regional titles and two national championships. 

“It’s always rewarding to bring home a victory in competition, but what’s truly inspirational is the dedication and hard work of both the students and the faculty who make the success possible,” said Doug Witten, Baker College program director of IT and Cyber Defense and faculty advisor of the Cyber Defense team.

Baker College also recently was granted a national CAE-CDE (Center for Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education) designation from the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security and National Security Agency, which it retains through the 2024 academic year.  This designation confirms the college’s, “ability to meet the increasing demands of program criteria, which will serve the nation well in contributing to the protection of the National Information Infrastructure.” 

A complete roster of winning student team members from both the Flint and Owosso campuses is below.

The Flint Team is represented by:

• Caine Munro - Captain (Flint, MI)
• Seth Hadfield - Co-Captain (Holly, MI)
• Ian Lake (Wauseon, OH)
• Ryan Buck (McComb, OH)
• Brandon Webster  (Linden, MI)
• Dillon Viar (Burt, MI)
• Zachary Chomic (Flint, MI)
• Anna Engel (Port Hope, MI)
• Matt Hansel - Advisor (Lapeer, MI)
• Doug Witten- Program Director

The Owosso Team is represented by:

• Michael Watts - Captain (Davison, MI)
• Jacob Gonzales - Co-Captain (Flushing, MI)
• Nathan Hall (Flushing, MI)
• Samantha Canode (Bellevue, OH)
• Nolan McFarlin (Flint, Mi)
• Dylan Johnson (Grand Blanc, MI)
• Anthony DiMarzo (Imlay City, MI )
• Dawson Baker (Jackson, MI)
• Steve Vincent - Advisor (Swartz Creek, MI)
• Doug Witten- Program Director