CNY Hackathon Brings College Cyber Teams to MVCC in Utica for 14th Year

College students spent Saturday, Nov. 14, 2026, hacking and defending computer networks at Mohawk Valley Community College's Utica campus for the 14th CNY Hackathon, the Daily Sentinel reported. The in-person day ran 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. after a virtual kickoff Friday night.

Who came: MVCC, Utica University, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Syracuse University, the University at Albany, Siena College and SUNY Canton. Teams were mixed, so students worked alongside people from other schools.

What they did:

• Capture the flag: puzzles, online sleuthing and code-breaking.
• Infrastructure challenge: teams kept a virtual network running while event staff tried to knock it offline.
• Lunch and job fair from noon to 1 p.m., then awards at 4 p.m. Each team named a most valuable teammate and a most improved player.

MVCC co-founded the event, which uses a secure virtual platform funded by the National Security Agency, according to Jake Mihevc, MVCC's assistant vice president of learning and academic affairs and an event co-founder. Winners and team counts weren't published.