Two teams of high school students from Falls Church are competing this weekend as finalists in the nation’s largest high school cyber defense challenge CyberPatriot V.

Coaches Jason Simeon and Shelli Carpenter lead the Falls Church teams, with high school students representing Marshall Academy.

CyberPatriot, an education initiative established by the Air Force Association in 2008, is a cyber defense competition designed to inspire students to consider science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields in their studies. The competition teaches students hands-on about cybersecurity and they learn how to defend simulated “networks of computers,” building knowledge on improving computer systems and strengthening security features. The teams’ scores were based on how quickly and effectively they established and maintained secure networks.

Now, the teams, along with 26 others, are receiving all-expenses-paid trips to the CyberPatriot National Finals Competition at the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center, in National Harbor, Maryland, where they will compete face-to-face and defend virtual networks from a professional aggressor team.