On Saturday, April 18, 2026, Energetics Technology Center (ETC) hosted our very first Capture the Flag (CTF) competition at Perry Hall High School in partnership with University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC)!

Through CyberLEARN (the student program of Cyber SyncED), 16 talented high school and undergraduate students from five local public high schools and UMGC put their problem-solving skills to the test on a virtual cyber range. They used real cybersecurity concepts to hunt for hidden flags in a dynamic virtual machine environment.

Congratulations to our winners:

1st Place: Yaphet Haimanot (Perry Hall High School), Johnathan Allen (Baltimore Polytechnic Institute), & Dylan Zander (Aberdeen High School)

2nd Place: Waleed Salam & Ryan Njonjo (both from Eastern Technical High School)

A huge thank you to every participant for bringing such incredible enthusiasm, hard work, and dedication!

Cyber SyncED, a $2 million congressional initiative in collaboration with DEVCOM ARL, ETC, and UMGC, is proud to advance cybersecurity and AI education for the next generation of talent right here in our community.

We are excited to host more CTF events soon and can’t wait to see even more students showcase their skills!

Learn more about the Cyber SyncED program.