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Qualys Public Sector Cyber Risk Conference
1. Learned from CISA, Federal CISOs, and NIST on how to modernize FISMA to address gaps in visibility, culture, and technology
2. Heard from Qualys leadership on a range of issues, from empowering the public sector with a risk-centric cyber strategy for proactive defense to how to overcome federated visibility challenges
3. Listened to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Cyber and Technology Security on DevSecOps and SBOM implementation to secure the supply chain
May 2025
Google GDC Sec Ops Fundamentals Training
1. Reinforced prior GDC knowledge
2. Taught how and what tools to use to be secure in the GDC, such as Splunk
May 2025
Booz Allen DE25
1. Heard from NVIDIA leadership on harnessing agentic AI for critical Federal missions
2. Heard from the past White House CIO on how the government worked together in a bipartisan fashion to align digital infrastructure with mission needs to deliver real results for the American people
April 2025
2025 Fal.Con Gov Summit
1. Heard from Cyber thought leaders, such as CrowdStrike's CEO and the Cybersecurity Director at the NSA. 👨🏿💻
2. Used the Falcon EDR platform to secure cloud-native applications. 🦅
3. Listened to the Adversary Universe Podcast giving their thoughts on the 2025 Global Threat Report! 🎙️
February 2025
2024 GDIT Emerge: Operational Technology Securing Our Nation's Critical Infrastructure
Met and heard from thought leaders in the government and private sector on how they are working together and learned how to help secure the nation's OT infrastructure.
December 2024
OCI for AWS Architects Workshop @Oracle Reston
Learned about IAM on Oracle Cloud and how Oracle is adopting a multi-cloud model.
October 2024
Deploying AI at the Edge: Building a Resilient Architecture
Heard from Mark Chatelain, CIO of National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and Zeke Maldonado, Director of Technology and Data Services at U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of I&A, Mark Sullivan, CISO at National Security Agency, and John Beieler, Executive Director at ARLIS on:
- Optimizing edge computing for peak performance and security
- Ensuring robust cybersecurity across distributed networks
- ...And much more!
October 2024
Google Cloud Core Infrastructure Training @Google Reston
Utilized tools and services like Cloud Shell and Cloud Run to run a Node.js application as a stateless container, configure a Cloud SQL instance, manage storage buckets, and much more!
October 2024
2nd Place at GMU HackOverflow Hackathon
Won with MasterMind!🥈
MasterMind is an Arduino-powered schedule-tracking alert system, created to help veterans maintain a structured daily routine while managing medical treatments, rehabilitation programs, and cognitive challenges like PTSD and memory loss. Through customizable reminders, medication tracking, and accessibility options, it aims to leverage technology for meaningful social impact.
Syed specifically created the Azure-powered SupportBot and led the overall product pitch.
September 2024
GDC Fundamentals Training @Google Reston
Learned how to operate in an air-gapped cloud environment and Google's cloud offerings for classified environments.
September 2024
AWS AI/ML Conference for National Security and Defense
Participated in the event's hands-on tech track. Learned how not only it's required to have regulations on AI/ML, but how to secure them from threats such as prompt exploitation. Syed applied that knowledge to implement controls using AWS tools such as Bedrock Guardrail for OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications (More details in Labs).
September 2024
Billington Cybersecurity Summit
Learned a lot about the public sector cyber industry. Interacted with industry insiders and organizations such as AWS Public Sector, Claroty, CISA, and SANS.
September 2024
HSDF Cybersecurity Symposium
Interacted with a lot of federal-focused companies such as Oracle Cloud and Leidos. In addition, Syed learned how private and public sectors collaborate on cybersecurity, specifically implementing the White House National Cybersecurity Strategy.
July 2024
AWS Public Sector DC Summit
Learned about tons of companies along with their products and services such as Datadog, Amazon Bedrock, Cloudflare, CNAPP solutions and so much more! Furthermore, Syed was able to receive AWS certification training opportunities and a discount code for the Data Engineer Associates!
June 2024
SpeedHacks
Created the Smart Kamra system with his team which allows a room to automatically have the fan and light turn on upon someone's entry along with a welcome message and sound. The goal was to allow anyone or Mason to have more efficient, intuitive, and aesthetically pleasing rooms. It not only had to be made, but pitched it to a panel of industry experts. In the end, the team was tied for 3rd!
May 2024
HackFax
One of the organizers for the first-ever HackFax, GMU's premier Hackathon. Not only did Syed help organize, but he led the development of their first CTF (Capture the Flag) (more on that in Projects).
December 2023 - February 2024
NoVA Cyber Meetup
A Cybersecurity Program Alumni Attendee.
November 2023
PatriotHacks
Syed was given access to fully paid-for AWS accounts. As such, he was able to gain hands-on experience using AWS to solve real-world problems. Syed was able to play around with S3 buckets, IAM roles/permissions, and Cloud 9 IDEs. Last but not least, Syed taught himself how to use AWS SageMaker Canvas to build an ML Model to predict if a lead will convert into a sale or not based on different marketing activities/metrics captured for that lead. The model had a 98.1% estimated accuracy!
October 2023
AWS Public Sector DC Summit
Syed was able to learn about tons of new things such as the DarkBlue Intelligence Suite and was able to meet tons of new people along the way.
June 2023
Academies Hacks/CTF
As VP of the Computer Science Honor Society, Syed supervised this event which brought hundreds of competitors along with helping manage it's first ever CTF with the Cybersecurity program. Syed also helped students finish challenges in the CTF workshop.
May 2023
Hour of Code
As VP of the Computer Science Honor Society, Syed supervised this event which taught hundreds of underprivileged students how to code.
December 2022
CyberPatriot CTF
Competed with other students across the nation to fix vulnerabilities and harden systems while maintaining critical services in virtual Linux, Windows 10, Windows Server, and Cisco environments. Placed in the Platinum Tier (the highest tier).
October - December 2021 and 2022
Academies Hacks
As a Hackathon Lead, Syed worked with a team to create an HTML/CSS workshop to teach students how to create a website from scratch.
October 2021 - May 2022
CyberSlam
Cybersecurity experts and leaders from around VA informed, energized, and connected with Syed. A tutorial CTF was also completed.
April 2022
RUSecure CTF
Completed different types of tasks such as finding flags in Linux VMs, using networking tools, understanding Cyber frameworks, and more.
February 2022
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