Knoch High School junior Kade Hilterman, left, and senior Jacob Archer plus four other KHS students formed a team to compete in the CyberPatriot program, in which students from across the U.S. find security risks in simulated computer systems.The Knoch team, which competed in CyberPatriot for the first time, passed the first two rounds and will move on to state competition in January.

JEFFERSON TWP — A team of six Knoch High School students will move on to the state competition in the CyberPatriot program.

The students, who are coached by computer science teacher Laura Gaston, are tasked with finding vulnerabilities in the simulated computer systems of imitation companies.

The CyberPatriot program is a national youth cyber education program created by the Air Force Association to inspire students toward careers in cyber security or other science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, according to the CyberPatriot website.

The Knoch team, which competed for the first time this year, completed rounds one and two in November and December, and scored in the top 75 percent.

This means the team will move on to the state competition in January, which will determine whether they will compete on the national level in April.

The students act as cyber security professionals who must debug and discover glitches and issues in the simulated computer pages with which they are presented.

The Knoch High School team members in the CyberPatriot competition are Kade Hilterman, Jacob Archer, Matthew Cummings, Nicholas Pawlowski, Amelia Walls and Braden Zukowski.

More information on the CyberPatriot program is available at www.uscyberpatriot.org.

This an excerpt — read the full story to meet a few members of the team.