Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

Excellent performance by Unimore's HackinMore team at the seventh edition of the CyberChallenge

Record results for the team of Unimore students who won second place in the friendly welcome competition and fourth place in the official competition, confirming their position as the best team in Emilia in the field of cybersecurity.

The HackinMore team from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia demonstrated its excellence in the field of cybersecurity by participating in the final competition of the seventh edition of the CyberChallenge, held from 28 June to 1 July at the International Training Centre for the ILO (ITCILO) in Turin.

The CyberChallenge is the first cybersecurity training programme for university and high school students, organised by the Cybersecurity National Lab. Numerous teams from all over the country participated in the competition.

The performance of the Unimore team was remarkable. HackInMore took second place in the friendly welcome competition, a knockout mini-tournament held on the evening of 28 June. Even more important was the fourth place achieved in the official competition on 29 June, just one step away from the podium, dominated by the University of Rome “La Sapienza” (gold), University of Trento (silver) and University of Pisa (bronze).

HackinMore thus achieved a prestigious result and is confirmed as the leading university in Emilia-Romagna for cybersecurity training, followed by the Universities of Bologna, Parma and Ferrara.

"I want to express my deep appreciation for the excellent performance of the HackinMore team at the seventh edition of the CyberChallenge," says Prof. Carlo Adolfo Porro, Rector of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. "This achievement represents recognition of the efforts made by our students and their lecturers, and confirms the important role our university plays in the field of cybersecurity training."

"To see our team ranked among the top four nationwide," continued the Rector, "is a source of great satisfaction. We will continue to support the talent and commitment of our students in this strategic area, aware of the importance of cybersecurity in the contemporary context. The success of the HackinMore team is a clear sign that we are going in the right direction."

"The excellent performance of the HackinMore team at the CyberChallenge reflects the dedication and talent of our students and confirms the effectiveness of the training offered by the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia," said Luca Chiantore, Director General of the University.

“This success," the Director continues, "comes at the same time as the recent signing of a memorandum of understanding with the Postal Police, which further strengthens the University's commitment to cybersecurity. The skills and experience gained by our students during these competitive challenges will be crucial to support future initiatives under this important collaboration."

"I am proud of my guys and proud to have made it possible for them to take part in this initiative that will remain indelibly etched in our memories," says Mauro Andreolini, university researcher and team leader. "The result achieved is the consequence of very hard training, which began with the rigorous selections in February, continued with the 72-hour course in March-May, and ended with the local competition at the end of May (which made it possible to select the six team members). I would like to thank the sponsors (VEM Sistemi and Certego) who made our participation in this beautiful event possible. I would like to thank also the instructors for their splendid work, which goes far beyond the technical side: it is thanks to them that the students have managed to become a cohesive and homogeneous team. Finally, I would like to thank the students, who demonstrated a willingness to learn, tenacity in difficult times and a team spirit that was truly out of the ordinary. Beyond any technical notion that we instructors could offer, they were the ones who put themselves on the line, confronted the other teams and prevailed."

“It was an educational, difficult and fun experience,” commented Edoardo Torrini, the team captain. Formative because it allowed us to get to know a world that has always fascinated us in a much more practical and real way, while also having to contend with the limitations that can be encountered when first participating, both in terms of experience and knowledge. This obviously increased the difficulty of the competition. On the day of the competition we had a little fear but still we were determined to give it our all. Indeed, the challenges presented were very difficult and the stress level was very high."

“Once the final classification was published”' Torrini continued, “we burst with joy. In our opinion, it was an incredible achievement, the result not only of the skills acquired during the course, but also of the bond that developed within the team during all the time spent studying together. I sincerely thank the tutors who followed us."

The HackinMore team, led by Mauro Andreolini and Prof. Mirco Marchetti, is made up of students Edoardo Torrini (captain, Bachelor’s DP in Computer Engineering, Mantova campus), Lorenzo Rossi (Master’s DP in Computer Science), Daniele Bianchini (master’s DP in Computer Science), Riccardo Cracco (Bachelor’s DP in Computer Science), Marco Tedeschini (Master’s DP in Computer Engineering, Modena campus) and Martin Menabue (ICT PhD student); the instructors, in addition to Andreolini, are Andrea Artioli (PhD student in Computer and Data Science) and Dario Stabili (researcher at the University of Bologna and member of the SECloud research group).

Categorie: International - english