PDMS donates to Isle of Man Code Club for the CyberCenturion Finals

Last Saturday (2nd April 2022) I got to meet a great bunch of young people who love all things tech.  

The Isle of Man Code Club is local charitable organisation aimed at providing a focal point for young people to develop digital skills, share their knowledge and experience and teach others how to leverage the technology that surrounds us.

Code Club is held every Saturday at the Eagle Lab in Douglas between 4pm and 6pm and is free for anyone to attend. Chaired and founded by Owen Cutajar, it is supported by a fantastic group of volunteers who give up their time every week to teach, support and nurture the next generation of digital talent.

For the past few years, the Code Club has taken part in the CyberCenturion event – a cyber education initiative for 12-18 year olds across the British Isles. The program is designed to excite, educate and motivate students to pursue further education and careers in STEM and cybersecurity, introduce students to a highly sought-after career path, and nurture local talent in places like the Isle of Man.

This year’s competition has been running since October 2021 and the teams have taken part in three competitive rounds where they faced various cybersecurity challenges to test their skills and abilities. In each session, the teams had a number of computers to protect; removing vulnerabilities and hardening the machines to make them more secure.

This year the Isle of Man Code Club has been very successful with two teams qualifying for the finals. Competing against 400 teams, the Isle of Man Code Club teams featured in the top 15, earning them a very well-deserved trip to London to take part in the finals on the 22^nd April 2022.   The Manx senior team placed second overall and one of the junior teams achieved second place in the junior mixed team category.

The senior team is made up of Aaron Rielly, Arthur Owenson, Luka Warren and Siddharth Muthu Pandian – also known as the CyberAces team. The junior team consists of Alexander Owenson, Aristea Owenson, Brodie Millar, Cameron Bazley and Phelim Bullock.  Both teams have been supported and encouraged by BSc Computer Science undergraduate Adam Drummond and data engineer Chris Hogben who will be travelling to London with the teams.

PDMS is delighted to be able to contribute towards the costs of the trip to participate in the finals with a £500 donation. We wish the teams the very best of luck and look forward to hearing more about their cyber security adventure when they return.

Find out more about Isle of Man Code Club via their website here