2026 Midwest CCDC

This season meant a lot to me because it was my fourth and final year competing in CCDC, and without a doubt the most intense one yet!

A big part of that came from how much preparation went into it. Leading up to the competition, I spent a lot of time learning how to hunt Cobalt Strike beacons across Windows environments and building a better understanding of the kinds of attacker behavior we might face. At the same time, I was really proud of how much work our team put in behind the scenes. Our GitHub repository was more stacked with scripts than ever before, which reflected just how seriously everyone took preparation.

A huge shout out goes to Ben for digging especially deep into Linux hardening and threat hunting. More broadly, I want to thank the entire team for the dedication they brought throughout the season. I am very grateful for how much effort people put in, both in preparing ahead of time and in showing up ready to compete.

Illinois Tech placed 3rd in the Illinois qualifier, which earned us a spot in the Midwest Wildcard round. From there, we advanced to the regional competition. I am proud to say this was the second time I was on the team while making it to regionals.

I also want to thank Professor Jeremy Hajek for giving us access to the Smart Lab, allowing us to train there, and letting us run our servers in the lab. That support made a real difference in our preparation, and we're grateful for it!

Illinois Qualifier 2/14/2026

1st: DePaul University
2nd: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
3rd: Illinois Institute of Technology

Midwest Wildcard 2/21/2026

1st: Indiana Institute of Technology
2nd: Southeast Missouri State University
3rd: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
4th: Illinois Institute of Technology

Team photo from CCDC Wildcards round

Team Members (In photo from right to left)

• Lucas Callahan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucas-callahan-a02794306/
• Henry (Vinh) Tran - https://www.linkedin.com/in/henry-vinh-tran/
• Mohithaa Ekambaram - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohithaa/
• Tristan Hatfield - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tristan-hatfield/
• Kacper Stasik - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kacper1/
• Ben de Pater - https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-de-pater/
• Lucas Ferguson - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucasferguson5275/
• Mohamed Kamate - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohamed-kamate-d/

Midwest Regional

Team photo from CCDC regional at Purdue University

Team Members (In photo from right to left)

• Lucas Ferguson - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucasferguson5275/
• Ben de Pater - https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-de-pater/
• Professor Jeremy Hajek - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-hajek-02b98455/
• Claudia Skutnik
• Jamie Crosby - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiecrosby1/
• Mohithaa Ekambaram - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohithaa/
• Henry (Vinh) Tran - https://www.linkedin.com/in/henry-vinh-tran/
• Lucas Callahan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucas-callahan-a02794306/
• Kacper Stasik - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kacper1/