UC Irvine team wins National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition
Cyber@UCI CCDC is first UC student group to earn top honors at championship
Irvine, Calif., May 19, 2025 — An eight-member team of University of California, Irvine students won first place in the recent National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, defeating opponents from the University of Virginia (a three-time national champion) and Dakota State University in the tournament finals.
The NCCDC, the largest college-level cyber defense contest in the United States, was the culmination of several weeks of regional matches among cybersecurity student teams from nearly 200 colleges and universities across the country. This year marked UC Irvine’s third entry into the NCCDC’s final phase; it earned a fourth-place finish in 2024 and fifth place in 2021. While UC Berkeley’s team has had some strong showings in NCCDC events in recent years, UC Irvine is the first University of California campus to win top national honors, taking home the Alamo Cup.
UC Irvine’s competitors were selected from the membership of Cyber@UCI, the university’s cybersecurity club.
“I couldn’t be prouder of UC Irvine’s Cyber@UCI CCDC team for their performance in this year’s National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition,” said Alfred Chen, UC Irvine professor of computer science and the team’s faculty advisor and coach. “Our cyber competitors were up against several other universities that have an established history of success in this event, so to see our team come out on the very top is highly rewarding.”
Headed by Akshay Rohatgi, a second-year computer science major, Cyber@UCI’s CCDC team included Kristen Chung, a third-year informatics major; Andy Gu, a first-year computer science major; Dhruv Kandula, a second-year computer science major; Jacob Lee, a fourth-year computer science major; Eric Liu, a fourth-year computer engineering and mathematics major; Steven Ngo, a second-year Ph.D. student in software engineering; and Christopher Young, a first-year computer science major.
The NCCDC tests students’ resolve in a mock corporate network environment under cyberattack. The goal is to confront and thwart an assault by an active “red team” made up of professional-level hackers and penetration testers with years of experience in the network security industry. Team members are required to quickly understand the scope and severity of an intrusion and how applications and services are being impacted.
“While this cyberattack is going on, student teams need to complete normal business tasks that mimic real-world network security responsibilities, all while addressing customer requests and concerns,” said Ngo, president of Cyber@UCI.
He said that NCCDC entrants experienced a shift in 2025: Teams competing at the national level had to complete risk assessments for all tools they intended to use, and they had to wait for approval from event organizers.
“In addition, we needed to stay on top of documentation in the form of tracking all changes we made to the network environment, applications and user/employee accounts,” Ngo said. “This was to discourage ‘gamification’ strategies that were distracting from real security, such as quickly disabling services that would prevent the red team from breaking in but also hinder employees’ and customers’ access and negatively impact business operations.”
Team captain Rohatgi said: “We as a team feel incredibly honored and validated by our victory. We dedicated countless hours – sacrificing spring break and many weekends – to intense preparation. Competitions like this, which closely mirror real-world scenarios and allow students to compete against like-minded peers, build our confidence and fuel our passion to pursue further opportunities in the field.”
He added that competing at the national level opens doors to professional success, noting that many competition alumni have gone on to hold high-level roles in security at leading organizations and top-tier cybersecurity firms. “We’ve seen this reflected in our own team as well,” Rohatgi said, “with members currently interning or working in security roles at major companies and innovative startups.”
About UC Irvine’s Brilliant Future campaign: Publicly launched on Oct. 4, 2019, the Brilliant Future campaign aims to raise awareness and support for UC Irvine. By engaging 75,000 alumni and garnering $2 billion in philanthropic investment, UC Irvine seeks to reach new heights of excellence in student success, health and wellness, research and more. The Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences plays a vital role in the success of the campaign. Learn more by visiting https://brilliantfuture.uci.edu/donald-bren-school-of-ics.
About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UC Irvine is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities and is ranked among the nation’s top 10 public universities by U.S. News & World Report. The campus has produced five Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UC Irvine has more than 36,000 students and offers 224 degree programs. It’s located in one of the world’s safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County’s second-largest employer, contributing $7 billion annually to the local economy and $8 billion statewide. For more on UC Irvine, visit www.uci.edu.
Media access: Radio programs/stations may, for a fee, use an on-campus studio with a Comrex IP audio codec to interview UC Irvine faculty and experts, subject to availability and university approval. For more UC Irvine news, visit news.uci.edu. Additional resources for journalists may be found at https://news.uci.edu/media-resources.