Chris Burns’ CISCO class finishes second place in Bay Area competition

Students from teacher Chris Burns’ CISCO class recently finished impressively with second place in the CISCO competition involving schools from all over the Bay Area.

Overall, there were six gold medal winners from CVHS: Roman Kayutkin, Andrey Zherebnenko, Quinton Wang, Alvin Cheung, Sabreena Sahota, and Taranpreet Singh, as well as six silver medal winners: Matt Saxton, Lindsey Matheney, Wyatt Melton, Ryan Gray, Dominick Lee, and Caleb Kim.

The competition consisted of three sections: a computer build, a multiple choice test, and a packet tracking.

In the computer build section, students were asked to disassemble and reassemble a computer. After finishing this task, students were required to use that same computer to make a PowerPoint presentation about it.

Next, students were expected to complete a multiple choice test consisting of 50 multiple choice questions pertaining to CISCO curriculum. Some students found this portion of the competition to be challenging.

“We found that we struggled a good deal on this portion,” commented junior Quinton Wang.

The last part of the competition was called packet tracking.

“Packet Tracker is CISCO’s network simulation program,” explained senior Matt Saxton. “They give you a scenario, with computers that need to be connected and problems fixed. They try to make it like it would be in real life, to help prepare yourself for the world. The goal is to correct the scenario as quickly as possible.”

Some students found this part to be the most enjoyable.

“I think my favorite part was the packet tracker activity just because that was when the team really relied on me. I felt I did a really good job,” senior Ryan Gray said.

In the end, most students were glad to have participated in the event, and saw it as a valuable and fun learning experience.

“I feel that the CISCO competition is a fun and simple competition. Although very understated, there were no real major setbacks and everything went like it was planned. The judges are qualified and they are knowledgeable in what they are doing,” Saxton said.