Harbert teams win national honors in cybersecurity, AI competition

Two Auburn University Harbert College of Business student teams took top honors in a national competition using problem-solving skills to tackle challenges within the nation’s information systems, such as cyberattacks taking down power, water and/or internet utilities.

Lance Dye and Zach Boudreaux won first place and $2,000 in prize money; while Catherine Gervaise and Andrew Duke took third and $500 in the 2026 AIS Student Chapter Leadership Conference at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Dye is a senior from Athens, Alabama, and Boudreaux a freshman from Gulf Shores. Both are majoring in Information Systems Management and said that Harbert had them well prepared for the competition.

“The challenge asked students to take a hypothetical utility provider in northern Virginia, which is the region that powers a large portion of the internet itself, figure out how a cyberattack could take it down, and how to stop such a thing from happening,” Dye said. 

“Zach and I built a live simulation of how an attacker would move through the system step-by-step, from stealing a password to shutting down data centers across the region. We pulled from real instances of operational technology attacks occurring, and we also walked through how to mitigate this exact circumstance from happening,” he said.

Although hypothetical for the competition, the challenge is something faced in actuality every day, Dye said.

“This is a real issue that the business community faces because the entire world runs on cloud infrastructure. If nation-state or hacktivist groups wanted to target American businesses, the cloud is where they would hit first,” he said, describing the damaging impact an extended power and/or internet outage could have on society and specifically the economy.

“This is what would happen if this scenario were to become true. Massive, sweeping blackouts which could lead to millions of dollars lost,” he said.

The competition wasn’t just about tackling the technology behind information systems, Boudreaux said.

“Harbert College of Business played a big role in preparing me for this experience, especially by helping me develop my communication and presentation skills,” he said. “Being able to clearly explain complex ideas was a huge part of our team's success in the competition.”

Meanwhile, Gervaise and Duke took third place facing a similar challenge, but with Artificial Intelligence: AI Driven Talent Optimization rather than cybersecurity. Their task involved creating an AI talent agent.

Student coach Bradlee Colburn, program champion of Business Analytics and Information Systems at Harbert, said such events prove valuable to students for several reasons.

“Case competitions give students a special opportunity to work with real world data, companies and business challenges. This kind of high-impact, experiential learning experience allows them to demonstrate both their technical skills and business knowledge as they develop actionable solutions for industry leaders such as Microsoft and EY,” he said.

“In addition, it is a transformative experience for students to travel, collaborate and compete alongside their peers from top Information Systems and Business Analytics programs from across the country,” said Colburn, noting that Auburn was one of 20 schools competing at the AIS event. “Students gain exposure to new ideas and a broader professional community. And with the competition held just outside Washington D.C., we were able to celebrate their achievement by exploring and enjoying the National Mall."

Harbert faculty Justin Farr and Eric Satterfield also accompanied the teams at the event. 

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Learn more about Information Systems Management education in the Harbert College of Business.