Cybersecurity educationIdaho Team Impresses in Girls Go CyberStart Coding Competition

It would have been a challenge even in normal times, but a four-girl team from Skyline High School in Idaho Falls overcame quarantine and equipment issues to finish 29th in Girls Go CyberStart, a national online problem solving competition held in late May.

“It was kind of a hard push at first,” said Carla Rudolf, adviser to the SHS Code Club. Members still had schoolwork to focus on, and Rudolf herself had 133 math students to teach remotely. When the team – Karina Permann, Sarah Youinou, Krystal Sanchez and Symphony Garcia – showed up at school on May 20 at 7 a.m., it was the first time they’d seen each other in person since March.

Two Days, 30 Problems
Over 35 hours in two grueling days, the team was given 30 cybersecurity problems to solve. The challenge was to think like hackers. They managed to solve 17, which earned them their Top 30 finish.

“I know we were all very determined to help each other out. Who got credit really didn’t matter,” said Permann, a senior and member of the Advanced Placement Computer Science class.

Overall, 276 teams from 41 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands participated. Five came from Idaho and two others, from Meridian Technical Charter High School and Centennial High School in Pocatello, also finished in the Top 30.

The invitation for local schools to participate came from Idaho National Laboratory. The lab sent out a Coding Coalition announcement in late 2019, promising registered clubs $1,500 in grant money to cover club materials and a stipend for advisers. Each club was also guaranteed an INL STEM ambassador to serve as a cyber guide. Eligible clubs had to commit to participate in Girls Go CyberStart or eCYBERMISSION, national programs designed to promote learning in science, technology, engineering and math.

In addition to Skyline, teams from Compass Academy, Hillcrest High School and Bingham Academy filed in time for the mid-January deadline. No one knew then of the chaos that was coming with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Girls Who Code
The SHS Code Club started in spring 2019 when Sarah Youinou, an INL computer science summer intern, approached Rudolf, her geometry teacher, about being an adviser to a group that wanted to participate in the Girls Who Code program. The club, which welcomed boys to participate as allies, met every Tuesday after school.