Two MSc Cyber Security students recently had the opportunity to take part in the NCSC Innovators Challenge event in London, organised by the National Cyber Security Centre (part of GCHQ). This 3-day event, held between 27 February and 1 March 2023, aimed to facilitate discussion between students from NCSC-certified courses and industries to encourage innovative solutions to cyber security challenges.
Dr Virginia Franqueira, Deputy Director (Education) of iCSS, said: ‘We were very pleased to see two of our students having the opportunity to engage in problem solving and solution design with industry to address real-world cyber security challenges in a professional and forward-looking setting. This is the second time our students attended such an event and, as it happened last year, students loved it.’
Students came back from the event enthusiastic about their experience:
Mr Utkarsh says: ‘I had the privilege of representing University of Kent at the National Cyber Security Centre Innovators Challenge 2023 at Plexal. This was amazing and an incredible learning experience. It allowed a platform for us to meet and mix with likeminded people from different universities and create own team to work with next couple of days. I thoroughly enjoyed everyone’s pitches for their ideas to fix the security problem among space assets and satellites. Our team also gave an amazing presentation on generating a physical device and using nano satellites to ease the problem of delay. I just want to thank iCSS for providing me this amazing opportunity and thank NCSC and Plexal for providing us with experience, it was a true pleasure.’
Mr Abah says: ‘The NCSC Innovators Challenge enabled me to gain exposure to Space technology and its most pressing cybersecurity challenges. It was truly memorable! Collaborating with like-minded cybersecurity students from universities across the U.K. to offer unique, creative solutions to these problems was the highlight of the event. I am also grateful for the opportunity to build new relationships throughout the three-day event. The future looks promising!’