GenCyber: Project Competition is an award-based project competition for high school students to be held at Marshall University as part of GenCyber: Adventure Zone Teacher Academy. The competition will provide an opportunity for high school teachers to motivate their students to develop and present their computing-related projects.
We welcome any teachers interested in the competition regardless of their participation in the GenCyber Teacher Summer camp.
Competition Details
The competition consists of (1) a preliminary online competition after year-long project development at school and (2) a one-day on-site competition at Marshall University for selected projects. The project team can be formed by students (2 – 5 students/team) under the guidance of a teacher, and the project topic is open-ended in Cybersecurity and Computer Science related areas determined by the team. The teacher will mentor the student team to develop the project and submit it online for the preliminary competition. Through the rigorous review process, ten projects will be selected, and all selected teams are invited to present their works at Marshall University for the final on-site/virtual (hybrid) competition. After the project presentation, the judges will select three winners. The team in the first place will receive $3,000, the second will receive $2,000, and the third group will receive $1,000. The other invited teams will also receive $500.00 as a gift for participating in the competition. The teacher mentors will also receive half of the rewards as a stipend.
How to Register for the Competition
The project registration should be made until March 24, 2023, from HERE.
There is no cost to all participants in registration for the competition.
The project must follow the requirement below:
- The project must be related to computing or how to use computing in different projects such as Biology (computer science, cybersecurity, or other related areas).
- there must be a teacher to mentor students
- there must be at least two students and at most five students in the team to implement the project
- the team members, including the teacher, must be US citizens
- multiple teachers can join the contest from the same school,
- one teacher can mentor multiple projects.
How to Submit the Project Details for the Competition
The project submission should be made until April 2, 2023, from HERE.
A single pdf file that includes the following items should be uploaded:
- Project Title
- Mentor Name, Mentor Email address, and Mentor School
- Project Team Members’ names and grades (Ex: John Doe 9th, Jane Doe 10th)
- Project Abstract (At least 100 words and at most 250 words)
- Project Description (At least 1000 words and at most 5000 words)
- Project Demo Video Link
All projects will initially be reviewed by the Program Committee, and ten projects will be selected based on their quality and uniqueness of the project. Those ten selected teams will be invited to Marshall University to present their projects for an on-site competition.
Evaluation Criteria for the Projects
- Creative or Scientific Significance and Originality – 35 points
- Clarity of the Project Description and Methodology – 25 points
- Completeness of the Project – 20 points
- Clear Demo Explanations in the Video – 20 points
Hybrid Competition Program
The final on-site and online competition will be held at Marshall University and over Microsoft Team on April 22, 2023.
Ten invited teams will present their works by using slides and show their demos to judges.
- Based on the judges’ scores on project and presentation rubrics, the first, second, and third places will be determined. You can access the rubrics from HERE.
- The team in the first place will receive $3,000, the second will receive $2,000, and the third group will receive $1,000. The other invited teams that participated in the on-site competition will also receive $500.00 as a gift for participating in the competition. The teacher mentors will also receive half of the rewards as a stipend. Only the teams that invited in the project presentations will get stipends.
Please contact genycber@marshall.edu if you need assistance.
