Image
Students
Meet Andrew Iadevaia
Andrew Iadevaia, ŮٱƵ23 (BS Computer Science) loves working with computer systems. When he first arrived at ŮٱƵŮٱƵs Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems, he only knew one programming language: Java. Knowing that, to succeed, he needed to expand his knowledge and experience, he started joining student teams.
In his first semester Andrew joined the student-run BergCyberSecŮٱƵs National Cyber League (NCL) and National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) teams, as well as the water monitoring team. By the end of the semester, he was an indispensable member of them all.
Andrew learns a great deal working with clubs and teams. He has picked up experience in programming, cybersecurity, networking, operating systems, communication, competition, and of course, teamwork. He has learned cyber defense, Python, SQL, Java, C, C++, C#, FastAPI and more.
Teams and Clubs
The Pace Northeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) team competes against teams across the Northeastern US in Cybersecurity competitions. They defend (Blue Team) or attack (Red Team) the resources of a hypothetical company or organization. In his first year on the CCDC team, Andrew competed with the Blue Team, documenting injects. This meant he was responsible for keeping a record of every action the team took in their efforts to defend their system against attack. Andrew explains: ŮٱƵSo I would write to [a hypothetical director or CEO] explaining what we did, why we did it, and how we did it and I put it into words that they could understand, not super technical.ŮٱƵ To do this well, he had to understand ŮٱƵthe overall picture, every part of the system: networking, hardware, and softwareŮٱƵ as well as the current security landscape and communicate that in an easy to understand way to a non-technical actor.
Pace CCDC has qualified to compete at regionals the two years Andrew has been part of the team. Why are they doing so well? Andrew thinks itŮٱƵs because of the people. Everyone on the team is ambitious and eager to learn. In competition, ŮٱƵitŮٱƵs a team effort; you have a duty you need to do and so does everyone else. Everyone does their part.ŮٱƵ He says the competitions can be stressful, but ŮٱƵcompetition makes you want to be the best, that's what encourages you to learn things.ŮٱƵ
Andrew also competes with the National Cyber League (NCL) team in Capture the Flag (CTF) competitions. It wasnŮٱƵt until he joined the Seidenberg community at Pace that he participated in his first CTF . Being part of these competitions has taught him about ŮٱƵred teaming, privilege escalation, security auditing, and overall cybersecurity.ŮٱƵ When asked how he does in competition he says ŮٱƵI've qualified for the gold bracket every season I participated, which is pretty good. Last season [as a sophomore] I ranked 42 out of 6,072 [in the US].ŮٱƵ
Andrew is the Backend Software Engineer and Data Manager for the Blue Colab team on ŮٱƵŮٱƵs Pleasantville Campus. The Blue Colab is SeidenbergŮٱƵs collaborative STEM laboratory that advances innovation in real-time water monitoring for the protection of human and environmental health. Andrew says that working with this team has taught him a lot about how combined systems work. In his role with the Blue Colab, he regularly works with databases, APIs, and web servers. Before he started, he didnŮٱƵt know how any of those systems worked. He says, ŮٱƵI find it mind-blowing sometimes because I went from not knowing how to write a SQL statement to literally running the database and API.ŮٱƵ
Learn By Doing
Andrew believes the best way to learn something is by doing hands-on projects. ŮٱƵYou can't just go and read documentation like you would read a textbook for history class. You have to use the code, make a connection to the database, play around with it. ThatŮٱƵs where projects come in.ŮٱƵ When working on projects, chances are that youŮٱƵll slip up every now and then. But mistakes are another opportunity to learn. ŮٱƵThere's always going to be errors, especially when developing your project, and that's when you actually learn.ŮٱƵ To sum it all up, he says ŮٱƵUntil you've done it, you haven't fully learned it. That's my belief.ŮٱƵ
The project Andrew is most proud of is a database converter program written for the Blue Colab team. The goal of the program is to take data from text files, parse it using an Artificial Intelligence Engine, and insert it in a database based on certain conditions. Andrew wrote the program in Java. He says, ŮٱƵI'm proud of the database converter because it was something IŮٱƵd never worked on before.ŮٱƵ Putting together database operations, SQL, and Java was a new experience for him. ŮٱƵIt was a big learning curve for me, but once I figured it out, I was able to actually take what I learned from the database converter and use it in other projects. Now, I'm able to comfortably read and write to databases.ŮٱƵ
Looking Forward
What advice would Andrew like to give Seidenberg students? ŮٱƵTo get the most out of Seidenberg, a key thing is to join extracurricular activities. Clubs and teams are just a swimming pool of knowledge that's not given to you in a classroom setting.ŮٱƵ Your teammates will ŮٱƵget you out of your comfortable zone and [help you] learn other things.ŮٱƵ For students interested in programming he adds, ŮٱƵThere's no programmer in the world who can remember perfect syntax and stuff like that. You're always going to have to look something up.ŮٱƵ And the most important thing to remember while programming? ŮٱƵKISS: Keep it simple, stupid.ŮٱƵ
Andrew would like to spend the rest of his time at Seidenberg taking on more leadership roles in the clubs and teams he works with. He has big plans for his teams. As data manager for the Blue Colab, he wants to find a solution for some of the issues the team is facing. He wants ŮٱƵmore flexibility in the way that we're able to input data and save it and use it.ŮٱƵ Andrew hopes his experience with these projects will help him find internships with technology companies. He looks forward to working in DevOps (Development Operations) where he can use his knowledge of IT systems and software development together to work with all the pieces of a system. ŮٱƵAnd just have a good time,ŮٱƵ he adds. ThatŮٱƵs important!