Courtesy Griffiss Institute
On April 4, the Center for Cybersecurity Research and Education (CCRE) at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) hosted the 2025 VICEROY Olympiad cybersecurity competition for eight teams representing seven Alabama schools. The event took place on the campus of UAH, a part of The University of Alabama System. The VICEROY Olympiad is a one-day competition tailored for middle school students to introduce participants to foundational cybersecurity skills and experiential learning as they compete in six different hands-on cybersecurity events and a final poster contest.
This marks the third year UAH has hosted the event. VICEROY Olympiads increase awareness in cybersecurity education and include activities featuring cryptography, phishing, building computer hardware and creating networking cables. Eighty percent of the schools participating in the Olympiad do not have a cybersecurity program.
“Programs like this are how students with no cybersecurity background get exposure to cybersecurity and cybersecurity degrees,” says Vanessa Alvarez, event coordinator and a research scientist at the UAH Center for Cybersecurity Research and Education. “The purpose of the VICEROY Olympiad is to ignite cybersecurity awareness in all students, as well as cyber careers and ethics. The students learned cybersecurity concepts, all while having fun.”
A total of 56 students and 10 teachers attended from four different regions throughout Alabama, including Madison, Morgan, DeKalb and Shelby counties. First place was awarded to Hampton Cove Middle School Team 1, while second and third place were earned by Hampton Cove Middle School Team 2 and Lindsay Lane Christian Academy, respectively.
Schools participating in the 2025 competition included Journey Middle School, Liberty Middle School, Lindsay Lane Christian Academy, Hampton Cove Middle School, Columbiana Middle School, Whitesburg Christian Academy and Ider High School.
The UAH CCRE is an interdisciplinary center dedicated to creating cybersecurity educational curriculum, hosting educational summer camps, organizing cybersecurity outreach events and competitions and performing cybersecurity research and development.
“By learning the fundamentals of how computer components interact, students are not only building a solid foundation for understanding operation and performance, but also preparing to secure those systems later on,” notes Akeema Rutland, a CCRE research scientist and event lead for an activity called “Keep it Simple” where students practiced taking apart and reassembling a PC. “This activity teaches students the fundamentals of computer systems while working on a team,” Rutland says.
VICEROY stands for Virtual Institutes for Cyber and Electromagnetic Spectrum Research and Employ, and is a program funded by the Department of Defense Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering in collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory. The initiative is facilitated and managed by the Griffiss Institute.