SOCORRO, N.M. – New Mexico Tech computer science students competed in the Codebreaker Challenge and finished fourth in the nation. 

The Codebreaker Challenge is an individual challenge where passing each stage gives points towards a school. When students register they specify which school they belong to. Jessica Rooney, Sean Salinas, and Owen Parkins were the main forces driving participation in this year’s competition. Notable contributors included Adam Merrill and Luke Rindells.

Parkins and Rooney showed the challenge to the Computer Science Intro class and other classes during the fall 2018 semester. That is why NMT has a large amount of participants in the lower stages. 59 NMT students completed the first challenge.

(Pictured at right: (seated) Jessica Rooney and Luke Rindells; (standing, from left) Sean Salinas, Owen Parkins, and Adam Merrill.)

NMT was steadily in fifth or sixth place through the first six challenges.  But NMT had five students complete the seventh challenge, which was the most in the nation. Merrill, Rindels and Parkins completed all eight challenges. Only 20 students in the nation completed all eight challenges. Only New Mexico Tech and second-place Georgia Tech had three students complete the event. 

Oregon State won the event, with Northern Georgia in third, and Tulsa in fifth. For the complete scoreboard, click here.

Rooney, Salinas, and Parkins spent many hours late at night working on the challenges that range from Reverse Engineering and Network Analysis to Blockchain Exploit Development.

Parkins said, “Personally, the purpose of the challenge is to prove to myself where I am with regards to my technically abilities. I have done a couple of these competitions, and each year I can see myself improving. In addition, completing the challenge is important for internships because only about 20 people have finished the challenge around the nation.”

Salinas, who is finishing his Ph.D. at NMT, is the only graduate student among the main competitors. Parkins, Rindells, Rooney, and Merill are all undergrads. They said they spent about 60 hours each on the challenge, which was completely separate from their academic course work. All of them are enrolled in the Scholarship for Service program.

Parkins said, “It’s really rewarding to get through the challenges. It’s a lot of fun.”

Merrill was new to the competition. He said he appreciated the challenge because it was a barometer for how much he has learned during his time at NMT.

Rooney said she liked the event because she was exposed to new areas of computer science. “I didn’t realize I liked reverse engineering so much until I spent 12 hours doing it.”

Rindells and Merill, who are juniors, said they look forward to doing the Codebreaker Challenge again in 2019. They hope to get more NMT students involved and have another good showing for the university.

– NMT –