About

Who we are, what we do, and how we do it.

CyberAegis students during a team activity — Team culture

Where the name comes from.

CyberAegis brings together students from Oak Valley Middle School, Design 39 Campus, and Del Norte High School. Students learn how digital systems work, how to defend them, and how to lead a team while doing it.

Cyber

Relating to computers, information technology, and the virtual world.

CyberAegis

Aegis

Protection, backing, or support for a person or organization.

Access

Anyone should be able to learn this here, including students who start knowing nothing.

Ownership

Older students teach, build, and organize. They leave the team better than they found it.

Teamwork

Winning matters, but nobody gets there alone. Practices are built around helping each other improve.

One coach, six student officers.

Coach Sam sets the bar. The officers run practices, build the competition environments, and decide what the team trains on.

Coach / Mentor

Sam Jha

Coach Sam holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering and an MBA, and is an alumnus of Harvard Business School. He is an accomplished entrepreneur and technology executive, currently serving as Senior Vice President and Group General Manager at ZeroNorth, and Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Alpha Ori Technologies. Previously, he held leadership roles at Qualcomm as Global Director of Advanced Software Products, and at Sprint and Nextel Communications in product and program management. As a volunteer, he has served as a Science Olympiad Head Coach for five years, leading teams to numerous medals at regional and state competitions.

The officers.

Six students, each responsible for a different part of the program.

President

Yash Parikh

Yash is a junior at Del Norte who is extremely passionate about cybersecurity; his success in the field has been demonstrated by his championship at the CyberPatriot National Finals three times, leading his team as the captain for one of the years, and being voted MVP by his team in another. He has been awarded the prestigious Eisenhower Award for Inspired Leadership by former Coach Paul Johnson, and spearheaded CyberAegis’ participation in the MITRE eCTF competition. Yash actively engages with protecting populations vulnerable to cyberattacks as the VP of the student-run Cybersecurity Community Education Outreach organization.

Infrastructure VP

Anvay Vahia

Anvay is a junior at Del Norte High School with a strong passion for cybersecurity and infrastructure systems. He is a 2-time CyberPatriot National Finalist and a National Final winner. He actively competes in major cybersecurity events, including MITRE’s eCTF, the SoCal Cyber Cup, and the Space Grand Challenge. As the VP of Infrastructure at CyberAegis, Anvay focuses on building and maintaining competition environments, scoring systems, and training platforms, ensuring that teams have the tools and systems needed to perform at a national level.

Competitions VP

Ishan Jha

Ishan is a freshman at Del Norte High School with a passion for cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. As a 2-time CyberPatriot National Finalist and VP of Competitions at CyberAegis, he organizes Red vs. Blue training exercises and CTFs to help CyberAegis teams compete at the national level.

Windows VP

Mihir Bapat

Mihir Bapat is a junior at Del Norte with a passion for Cybersecurity. Having been a 3x CyberPatriot National Finalist while leading his team as captain for two of those years, Mihir is the current VP of Windows Security. Outside of CyberPatriot, he has won the SoCal Cyber Cup and participated in MITRE’s eCTF embedded security competition.

Linux VP

Jacob Chou

Jacob is a sophomore at Del Norte High School who is dedicated to research in cybersecurity. As the VP of Linux, he has spent over five years learning how to secure the system, and looks to guide the next generation of Linux mains. Through CyberAegis, he has qualified for the national finals twice, and has placed on the podium for Socal Cyber Cup twice.

Networking VP

Adya Shipekar

Adya is a freshman at Del Norte High School with a dedicated passion for STEM and computer science. She enjoys participating in cybersecurity competitions like CyberPatriot, SoCal Cyber Cup, and MITRE eCTF. Adya is a two-time CyberPatriot National Finalist and a CyberPatriot National Champion. She earned first place (2025) and third place (2026) in the Cisco NetAcad Challenge at the CyberPatriot National Finals.