All posts by Alexa Heinrich

SPC Team Earns 3rd Place in Cybersecurity Competition

November 7, 2025Cybersecurity, FeaturedAlexa Heinrich

St. Petersburg College’s TitanSec team earned an impressive third place in the Florida Department of Education’s third annual Florida College System (FCS) Cybersecurity Competition.

The competition brought together students from across Florida’s 28 public colleges to test their expertise in a virtual cyber range, simulating real-world network defense challenges faced by industry professionals.

SPC’s TitanSec showcased exceptional technical skill, problem-solving and teamwork as they competed against other top-performing colleges. All participating students also received a cyber range certification provided by Global Business Solutions, Inc.

Florida’s community colleges continue to play a vital role in preparing the next generation of cybersecurity professionals — with nearly 4,500 students enrolled in cybersecurity programs across the system.

“Witnessing these students tackle complex cybersecurity challenges has been truly impressive,” said Commissioner of Education Anastasios Kamoutsas. “Their ingenuity, perseverance and critical thinking skills demonstrate that Florida is cultivating a strong cybersecurity pipeline.”

The event was made possible through support from the Florida Department of Education, the Florida College System Foundation, the Florida Student Success Center, Cyber Florida and other partners.

Congratulations to the TitanSec students and faculty mentors for representing SPC with excellence in this competitive and fast-growing field!

Titan Coding Team Takes Top Spots at Competition

April 15, 2021Featured, ProgrammingAlexa Heinrich

St. Petersburg College’s Titan Coders did SPC proud on Saturday, April 10, when they competed in the Florida Intercollegiate Computer Programming Competition. The coding event was held virtually via Zoom this year due to the COVID-19 outbreak, allowing students to compete from the comfort of their homes. For many of the students, this was their first time competing in the regional event.

“It was a lot of fun,” said first-time coding competitor, William Helms. “I honestly did not feel very much pressure because I was in a comfortable environment throughout the competition.”

Eight Florida colleges, including SPC, participated in this year’s coding event. In order to be eligible to compete, students needed to have access to a development environment for one of the approved programming languages used during the competition: Java, Python, C, C++, or Visual Basic. Despite the nontraditional contest environment, students still brought their competitive edge to the event and snagged several top spots.

In the Team Awards category, the SPC Titan Coders claimed second place for both the Advanced Gold Group and the Novice Blue Group. Students Gabriel Aldous, Gabriel Schiavo, and Jesse Allen were the top SPC coders for the Advanced Gold Group while Alisha Yabczanka, Tristan Izlar, and William Helms claimed top spots in the Novice Blue Group.

For individual awards, Gabriel Aldous and Alisha Yabczanka—both first-time competitors—claimed third place overall in their respective groups.

“It may seem daunting to think about competing with students from other schools, but it’s important to remember that everyone else has had the same exposure, at least at the blue level,” said Yabczanka. “It’s a way to put together everything you learned from introductory programming in a fun way. Plus, there’s a huge feeling of accomplishment when you finally get a program working after spending time trying to debug it.”

To learn more about SPC’s computer programming and technology degrees, please visit spcollege.edu/degrees.

Is Zoom safe (enough)?

April 22, 2020Cybersecurity, FeaturedAlexa Heinrich

Dr. John Duff, SPC’s Acting Dean of the College of Computer and Information Technology (CCIT), recently wrote a compelling article on LinkedIn that discusses the safety and security of Zoom.

The video conferencing technology has risen to great prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, adding millions of users in a very short timeframe. Its security features, or lack thereof, have recently been scrutinized by IT professionals and the mainstream media. Data sharing and “Zoom-bombing” have been hot topics in particular, especially with many minor students using Zoom to learn online during stay-at-home orders and school closures.

Dr. Duff offers a practical analysis of Zoom’s safety and security and also highlights the steps the company has outlined to protect the privacy of its many, many users.