Meet the Season 2 Team
Dr. Dan Manson
Dr. Dan Manson, CISSP, is a Professor in Computer Information Systems at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona). Dr. Manson has taught Information Systems Auditing, Internet Security and Computer Forensics in the College of Business Administration Computer Information Systems undergraduate and Master of Science in Information Systems Auditing programs. From September 2003 to March 2004 and January to December 2006, Dr. Manson served as the campus Information Security Officer for Cal Poly Pomona. Dr. Manson led the effort for Cal Poly Pomona to be designated a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education in 2005 and again in 2008.
Charissa Kim
Charissa Kim is a current University of California, Berkeley student. She has a lengthy list of outstanding achievements, including winning first place in the All Service Division at CyberPatriot Nationals (the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition Finals) last year. She has earned the designation of CyberPatriot All-American. Charissa Kim was the Northrop Grumman Information Systems Sector Award Recipient in 2018 and 2017, for which she received a $2,000 scholarship each year. Charissa has spoken on various panels and presented at conferences such as NIST, NICE, and many others. Charissa also founded Cyber Youth Tech (CyTech), a non-profit organization devoted to empowering the next generation of STEM and cybersecurity professionals. Charissa founded and directed AiHacks, Southern California’s First All-Female High School Hackathon, at USC. She is the student-led director and producer of K-12 Cyber Talk at the moment.
Carter Costic
Carter Costic was introduced to cybersecurity in sixth grade with CyberPatriot and has been involved since. Collaborating with his team, he has placed first in NJ and top nationally for six years in a row. He is an active member in the CTF community, recently placing 2nd in NGA CTF and 1st in USCGA’s CTF in addition to other successes. Additionally, he has placed 1st place nationally in two different FBLA competitions. Aside from the computer realm, Carter has been trading stocks and options for over seven years and loves to combine his technical knowledge with finance in an interdisciplinary approach. He actively maintains his own home server, collecting and purchasing enterprise grade parts and implementing industry leading security features in services such as Active Directory, FTP, Docker, REST APIs, and more. Carter is currently a software engineer intern and is looking to concentrate in CS at Princeton University this fall.
Amy Xiao
Amy Xiao was first introduced to cybersecurity as a freshman, when her computer science teacher pushed her to participate in the Girls Go CyberStart Competition, now known as the CyberStart scholarship competition. Ever since then, she has always had a strong passion for computer science and cybersecurity. Amy is the co-founder and co-president of her high school’s CyberSecurity club, where they practice cybersecurity challenges and compete in the CyberStart competition. She hopes to continue on this path in college and become an even more competent computer scientist in the future.
Julie Seth
Julie Seth gained interest in cybersecurity when she attended GenCyber summer camps in middle school. Since then, she has grown a passion for cyber security awareness and education. Julie created videos of her sharing the importance of cybersecurity as well as cyber safety tips for the student body and her school. She has created her own cybersecurity pamphlet and was a student editor for the booklet “Outsmart Cyberthreats” that is directed towards middle schoolers across the country. Julie continues to explore the field of cybersecurity and makes content contributions to provide a safer online environment for her peers.